


Dawn Over The Dragon Wings

by AraSigyrn



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-14
Updated: 2012-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-12 02:39:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 49,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraSigyrn/pseuds/AraSigyrn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Adam ever wanted was to be a Wizard (or a rockstar). Unfortunately for him, Fate (with a little help from some fairies) has other plans. A magical gift given on his tenth birthday looks to set Adam's future in stone but after a chance meeting  with another boy, Adam finds some things are worth fighting for as War sweeps across the mortal world and Kris is sent to fight and die in the Fae Lands.</p>
<p>Faced with losing Kris, can Adam make the hardest choice of all?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Kradam Big Bang](http://kradambigbang.livejournal.com) 2012 with art by the fabulous [Adrianne](http://adrianneb78239.dreamwidth.org/). 
> 
> See the incredible art she made [here](http://adrianneb78239.dreamwidth.org/90314.html)!
> 
> I owe thanks to the BBH, deannawol, for holding my hand through this and the lovely ladies of the Big Bang BOOM mailing list for keeping me on track. ♥

  


On the morning of Adam's tenth birthday, the fairies leave a small singing stone on his pillow. 

It's the sort of thing that Adam would have appreciated much more even if he'd been even a year older or read his History of Fey all the way through the way he was supposed to. If he'd realized, Adam will later think he would have been more excited. As it is, a shiny singing rock is nothing compared to the whole new LEGO set with horses and a castle so big and complicated that Adam's dad will have to help him put it together. 

So, Adam puts the rock in his drawer and writes the fairies a thank you note in crayon. His mom always tells him that he should always write a thank-you note for the presents he gets and who else could have left him a singing rock but a fairy? He leaves the note on his windowsill and goes downstairs to gloat over his LEGOs.

At ten, Adam's a chubby, unremarkable kid who sings in the shower and dreams of being like Michael Jackson or KISS. He still dreams about being a spaceman or a great wizard like the ones on the television news. He goes to school every morning and plays in their front yard with a motley gang from the neighborhood. 

Adam's just a normal, American kid with a normal American life. He never thinks twice about just how amazing that is.

He's lucky enough to live in San Diego; part of the Los Angeles Summerland, the safest human territory on the East Coast. The great American Magickal Scholars Tower casts a protective shadow that covers California, Arizona and Nevada, keeping the Courts at bay. The Summerland stays green and at least 90% of all the crops planted in the fields are successfully harvested. The weather is balmy and beautiful and the United States' best wizards train and raise their towers in the Summerland.

Adam does know that his parents brought him here when he was one year old because the Old Spirits in Indiana rose up during the Seelie War. His dad tells him about them, how you never left the house without a torch and a candle to keep away the wraiths and the bags of rock salt that every house kept tucked by the front door. All the pictures of him in his old room show the two-inch wide circle of salt around his bassinet.

Adam's Granddad Lambert was a weather wizard who made the wind gust every time he sneezed and Grandma Lambert would yell at him for blowing away her laundry and try to make him sneeze it back. Adam's dad is a Reeve, dutifully copying out the intricate spell patterns for the wizarding firm, _Rothschild and Ciano_. He wanted to be a wizard, Adam knows even if he's not supposed to. Adam's dad might have been a wizard but his talent was for Shaping and during the Seelie War, the only wizards who were taught were the ones with a knack for War Magics.

Adam's mom is a hearth-witch, braiding charms out of colored yarn and the shells Adam collects for her on the beach. Her mom died in the War; Adam remembers her voice singing away his bad dreams and Grandpa Mitchel is a sullen, sour old man who is never happy to see Adam or Neil. Adam totally gets why Grandpa doesn't like Neil but Adam is two whole years older and totally a grown-up now! 

Grandpa is staying with them on Adam's birthday which is why Adam doesn't tell anyone about his rock. Grandpa has to stay with them because he's sick, and this time he's coughing so Adam thinks maybe he really is sick.

Adam hates that Grandpa always gets sick around his birthday so Grandpa's always there for dinner and he's always angry. Grandpa's old, grumpy and he swears a lot. Grandpa doesn't like using magic and he doesn't like any Fey, not one of them! Not even the twinkly little fairies that live in Adam's mom's roses. They're tiny glittery things that sound like his mom's wind-chimes and they just fly around the roses and make music and pretty lights. Adam doesn't really understand why music and pretty lights make his Grandpa so mad.

The last time he came to stay, he and Adam's mom had a big fight when Adam's mom saw Grandpa spraying her roses. Adam found some fairies on the deck, all dull and crinkly like they'd been broken, and they wouldn't get up. His dad told him that they were dead like Mr. Snickers, the hamster Neil had gotten for the Christmas before last so Adam took the little pointy shovel and buried them under the rose bushes. He didn't know if he should say a prayer because they were fairies and fairies - alive fairies - hissed at anybody who said prayers at them.

"I'm sorry you're dead," he said at last and put some of his mom's plastic gold buttons on the little mounds. 

On his birthday, Adam has to sit at the table while Grandpa coughs and makes this gross sputtering sound. Grandpa doesn't want to eat anything but he drinks glasses of red wine that make his spit look like blood. Adam is totally grossed out. He sits at table and fidgets while his mom and dad talk about stupid things like the weather. 

"Fuck the weather," Grandpa spits at last and Adam and Neil stare at each other with wide eyes. Grandpa is the only grown-up who uses that many bad words and he never says he's sorry or tells them not to repeat what he said. Adam's mom puts her fork down and his dad drops his knife.

"Dad-" Adam's mom starts. 

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady!" Grandpa's face is red and blotchy. He looks like one of the swamp monsters from Florida with his red eyes and sagging face. "I'm not going to be condescended to by my own flesh and blood! Not today of all days!"

Adam wonders, even as he holds Neil's hand and feels Neil's nails biting into his skin, why Grandpa is so angry if Adam's birthday is so important. He keeps his eyes on his plate and sees his dad's angry face in the corner of his eye.

"Michael, the kids are right ther—," Adam's dad says.

"Dad, I know this is hard-," his mom says at the same time and they look at each other and go quiet for a second.

"I will not be quiet!" Grandpa slams his glass down and his wine sprays out across the table. A lot of it lands on Adam's birthday cake, staining the rainbow red. "This isn't what your mother died for! What would she think of this fag-"

"Dad!" Adam's mom sounds weird but Adam doesn't look at her. He's staring at his birthday cake and the way the icing roses sink into the wine, like they're melting.

"Boys," Adam's dad says quietly. "I think you should go play upstairs, okay?"

It's not okay. Adam's eyes are stinging and he sniffles a little as he stares at his birthday cake but grown-ups never listen. He pulls Neil out of the room and slams the door behind him. Neil, the big dummy, goes for the Nintendo but Adam runs upstairs to his room. His LEGOs are still neatly stacked in their boxes beside his bed but Adam flings himself on his bed and buries his head in the pillow. He takes a couple of big deep breaths and blinks until he doesn't think he's going to cry.

His chest still feels tight and achy and Adam snuffles into his pillow. He doesn't want to get up. He doesn't want to go downstairs even if Neil is stupid and needs Adam's help to get past the second level on Mario. He can hear shouting; his bedroom is right over the kitchen and Grandpa's voice is very loud. Adam can't hear words but Grandpa sounds really mad. His dad is shouting too and Adam pulls a pillow over his head, curling up into a little ball.

The shouting is muffled and with his head under the pillow, Adam can't tell who's actually doing the shouting. He can hear music - thin soft music like a flute - and scootches around until it's louder than the shouting. It's a really simple tune, kind of like a lullaby. Adam closes his eyes really tight and hums along with the song until he falls asleep.

When he wakes up the next morning, the rock from his dresser is stuck between his mattress and the dresser. It looks almost like it's glowing but Adam forgot to close the curtains so it's just the sunlight. Adam sits up and yawns and ew, sleeping in jeans is nasty. Adam wiggles out of the stupid creased up jeans and dumps them in his hamper. He sticks the rock into the drawer of his dresser with the kickass glitter t-shirt that he's too big to wear any more. The rock feels smooth and warm but Adam just assumes that's the sunshine. He closes the drawer and goes to take a shower. The crayon thank-you note is gone too, but Adam doesn't notice that.

He goes to school and he plays with his friends and life goes on. He's going to be thirteen soon, or so everyone tells him, so Adam spends time practicing magic. It takes a lot of time but that's okay. Adam's not really into the games that the other kids around the neighborhood like to play and the more time he spends with the neighborhood kids, Adam thinks, the more things he realizes that they don't have in common. Sally, who was wicked-cool at chasing, stops running and refuses to play anything that might get her dirty. Keith, who lives three doors down and was Adam's best friend for ages, is now just a dork obsessed with football and girls.

"It's dumb," Adam tells his mom after school one day when they're practicing house-warding. "What's so 'cool' about girls?"

"You'll figure it out, honey," his mom promises and gently turns his attention back to the intricate knot that will become part of the house wards. Adam grumbles a little more and his mom smiles. She seems so certain that Adam will figure it out that even Adam believes it for a bit.

Still, it turns out that Adam doesn't really like being on his own. The novelty wears off fast and he starts finding that if he doesn't go out to play every day, it gets harder to find a way into the game the next day. If he's not there for two days, then it's nearly impossible. 

Everyone else seems to know these new rules about what they're going to play, already on the fast track to being grown-ups while Adam stumbles along behind them. He still doesn't understand why girls are suddenly cool and his mom still tells him that he'll understand one day. He gets his first growth spurt and he's always, always hungry. He doesn't exercise so he gets fatter. Studying Magic starts becoming a chore rather than an adventure and Neil and his friends hog the Nintendo all the time. Adam doesn't sleep as much as he used to until he remembers his stone. It's still singing, an endless song without words that's better than any lullaby.

  


His class gets tested for magic potential in eighth grade. It's the first time that most of them have seen magic more complicated that the cantrips that keep the streets clean or the Fourth of July pyrokinectic displays. The Wizard in charge of the testing is a grim-faced woman with grey hair in neat cornrows that have polished bone beads threaded along the ends of the two long braids that hang in front of her face. She has a blackthorn staff, crowned with three iron nails that thumps down over every other step with a tremendous booming sound that scatters everyone in her path.

Her name is Mabelle Loft and Adam finds out later that she is probably the greatest Wizard the West Coast has ever produced. All the pictures of her in the books are of black and white: her skin is smooth: her hair is a dark fluffy halo around her head and she is smiling. She looks a hundred years younger than the lean old woman who marches onto the stage in Assembly and looks down at the hundred and twenty kids with narrow eyes.

Adam doesn't know it yet but there's a lesson here. Safe in the Summerlands, protected and loved, none of the kids staring back at Wizard Loft have any idea how much that peace and security really costs. Adam spends most of the time thinking that her eyeliner looks really cool and wondering if her coat is real leather.

"Children of Hope and Evergreen Middle School," Wizard Loft's voice echoes around the hall and everyone edges together a little. Adam's homeroom teacher, a small frail woman called Ms Martin, squares her shoulders and ducks her head. "You have been gathered here under the Magical and Arcane Devolution Acts 1831-1995. You are to be tested for magical potential. You will be tested individually and your results will be discussed with you by one of your guidance counselors who will assist you in choosing the areas of study you are most suited to."

She talks for half an hour about the tests before sending them back to class. Kids get called out one by one as the day winds on. Adam's heard that testing can last for the whole week and the teachers aren't allowed to give pop quizzes because stress can throw off the test. Most of them spend their classes in revision, carefully deaf to the buzz around the students back from the tests.

Adam's nervous because magic isn't like a big nose or blond hair. You don't just inherit it from your parents. He has cousins on both sides who are as magical as a goldfish and he doesn't want to be like them. Magic is for children and Wizards, his dad always says and if Adam isn't going to be a Wizard then he'll never have magic again. He doesn't ask anyone about the tests because there are stories that if you know what the test should be like, then you go in and fail because knowing is cheating. 

He doesn't get called on the first day or the second and goes home every night to pace around his room until his dad comes upstairs to tell him to go to bed. He keeps the stone under his pillow all night. Adam wakes up with a wicked crick in his neck but he's rested and it's nothing a shower can't fix.

Adam gets called for his test just before recess. The testing room is one of the offices with everything tidied away and a big black cloth hanging over the window. Wizard Loft is sitting in a chair with five candles burning in front of her and there's a crackle through the air around her that makes Adam's fingers twitch. She's burning a tiny pyramid of incense and the scent hits him like a padded sledge-hammer.

He remembers very little about the test itself; mostly Wizard Loft's voice chanting in a low rumble that came up through the soles of his feet. He thinks there's singing in there but he doesn't remember anything else between closing the door and waking up in the nurse's office.

Adam's the only one in the whole grade who doesn't get given his result. It gets posted home and Adam's parents start having long conversations when Adam and Neil are supposed to be in bed. Nobody says anything about it and Adam spends forever worrying while his parents argue and his classmates go for hours of appointments with the guidance counselor.

He finally snaps on Tuesday, the last day Wizard Loft is in the school. He skips Algebra and Resonant Elemental Theory, sitting outside the borrowed office with his hands pressed between his knees so they won't shake. Yvonne Zyskowski comes out, clutching a piece of paper and Adam feels something like that snap in the air again. She smiles at him, wobbly and afraid but with joy shining up through it all so bright that Adam is grateful for his sunglasses.

He waits five minutes, maybe more or less but the nervous, sickly terror makes him fidgety and twitchy before he opens the door. Wizard Loft is sitting on the floor, her five candles burnt nearly all the way down and floating in the air over her head.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Lambert," she says without opening her eyes. "Sit, if it pleases you to come in."

Adam folds himself opposite her and tries to work out what to say as the silence stretches into uncomfortable. "I-Did I pass?"

"The test?" Wizard Loft asks. Adam can't tell if she's annoyed, condescending or just bored with him. "It's not a question of passing or failing, Mr. Lambert. You live, you were born and so, you have magic. My task is to determine the depth and scope of your magic. It is a discernment, not a 'test' that you can fail."

"But I don't know how I did!"

Wizard Loft opens her eyes at that. "Your results were sent home by high priority messenger."

"My mom and dad..." Adam tries to think how to put it into words. "They're fighting a lot. They don't- I mean, I don't know what the results are-"

"And you are afraid to ask," Wizard Loft finishes with a sigh. "Mr. Lambert, you are thirteen years old-"

"Thirteen and a quarter!" 

"-if you prefer. The point, Mr. Lambert, is that you are legally a minor and there are volumes of case law on this matter. I cannot discuss your results with you without your parents' consent and preferably, their presence." She pauses and her voice softens, just a little. "What I can say is your magical aptitude levels are well above the average for your peer group."

Adam nearly passes out from the relief and Wizard Loft looks at him. Her face relaxes into what might almost be the beginning of a smile. "And, though I can make no official recommendation...you should consider changing your science extra credit to music. I think you'll find it's more suited to your talents."

Adam floats out of the office walking on air. He stops at the secretary's office to change his class and goes back to class, practically floating with relief. His parents still don't tell him what his results said but Adam doesn't care as much anymore. He joins the choir and starts doing the work he needs to make up to pass his exams in Music.

He finds out what his results said three months later but it isn't his parents who tell him.

  


Neil is just starting to grow up, the first spurt of what promises to be lanky height making him whiny and he's just starting to study for his Magical Aptitude tests. He and Adam have settled into amicable indifference, both too busy with their own lives to really notice each other except over the table at dinner.

Still, when Grandpa gets sick - this time, Adam's in the car when his mom drives out to see him so Adam sees the bottles and the pills - and their parents start to argue more, Adam has to take care of Neil. It's a Thursday when Adam first notices something isn't right. Neil is eating meatloaf and not complaining about it which is weird. Adam is in the middle of some history homework but he notices. Then he notices that Neil isn't talking. He'll answer if Adam says something but normally Neil is the original motor mouth. 

And Adam notices when Neil, who ate every bite of the meatloaf, takes four bananas, two pita breads and a whole box of Oreos out of the kitchen. He doesn't actually do anything then. Neil is unfairly skinny and Adam's still young enough to resent that. He notices when the spare sheets go missing too but Neil doesn't look like he's planning anything so Adam lets that go too.

On Monday, Adam's dad leaves for LA and promises to bring back presents. He's been going to LA a lot lately and the longer he's gone, the bigger the presents he brings back. Adam's not blind but he's not stupid either. So when their dad asks what they want this time, Adam has a list of things he wants that's nearly a full page long. He wrote them down so his dad wouldn't forget. Neil asks for a new Sony Playstation and some books and a helmet like dragon-riders wear and his dad laughs.

"Dragon riders don't wear helmets, kiddo," his dad laughs. "They're strange ones. I'll get you a dragon rock, if you want?"

"What's a dragon rock?" 

"Dragons grow to be very big," Adam's dad holds his hands out wide apart. "They break through their old skin a couple of times while they're growing and dragon skin is made of rock and stone. It breaks into little chunks. They sell it at the Towers."

It sounds...wrong. Adam barely notices the feeling but the vague wrongness lingers, like he'd walked past a blue sunflower. His dad hugs them both and gets into a taxi. His mom is in the hospital so Adam has to reset the house wards. It takes most of the afternoon but that's okay. It's a sunny day and Adam can sit outside on the deck.

There aren't any fairies out, Adam realizes as he sets the last ward. It's nearly May and his mom's roses are in full bloom. The evening should be filled with fairy chimes and sparkling light but everything's quiet. Adam looks around and sees them, up in the big cedar tree where the tree house is. Neil's tree house, even though their dad built it for them both because Adam stopped crawling up that rope ladder when puberty (and the fat and the aches) started. He looks at it for a minute before he goes back inside.

There's a storm that night. It comes out of nowhere or so it seems to Adam then. Years later, when he learns what a real _Tempestus_ can do, Adam will understand how lucky they were. Thirteen and a half years old, home alone with just his beloved brat of a brother, Adam only knows that the storm is terrifying.

He attunes himself to the wards when the thunder unleashes a torrent of rain. It's straining the edges of what he's capable of and it means that he can't have the TV on or any music. He has to be able to hear any change. It's harder than he would have believed but he can't call his mom. There are cops out and the silver-blue uniforms of Wizard Response teams. All the roads are closed and it's okay, mostly. There's food in the fridge and there are candles for when the power goes. Adam fetches his rock and hums along with it when the silence gets too big and empty for him to think.

The humming isn't enough to distract him from Neil's less than stealthy progress towards the back door. Adam turns to yell at him to stay inside but he trips over the words before they can form when he sees that Neil has the big first aid kit from the bathroom tucked under his arm and their dad's old rain coat over his shoulders. Adam stops humming and follows him out.

Neil goes straight to the tree, running across the slick wet grass and climbing up the rope ladder to the tree house. Adam tucks his rock into his hoody pocket and climbs up after him. It's slow and the ladder is slippery. Adam nearly falls three times just getting halfway up. He hears voices - one is Neil's but there's someone else talking and Adam pulls himself up over the lip of the tree house and nearly falls flat on his face.

There's a thunderous crash and a flash of lightning that shows him Neil and another boy, huddled together under the raincoat. They're all frozen in place for that second. Adam notes that the boy is probably younger than Neil, tiny and dirty with a smear of mud (or blood) across his cheek. His hair is spiky and grown out and he looks like a puppy left out in the rain alone to be sad.

And that's how Adam Lambert meets Kris Allen.

  


Neil introduces them, Kris tucked protectively against his side to watch Adam with eyes that look freakishly huge in the dim light of Neil's wind-up torch. Kris is Neil's friend. Neil tells Adam that he found Kris at church, which is kinda weird. Neil glosses over why he was at the church but Adam thinks he's got a girlfriend. Then he tries really hard not to think about Neil and girls because ew, that's kinda gross.

"Kris ran away," Neil tells him seriously and Adam looks over at Kris. Kris is tiny, like smaller than Neil who is a shrimp. He looks like he's six.

"I'm ten!" Kris says indignantly.

"He's from Arkansas," Neil says. Adam's jaw drops. "He's been walking since like April! And he was trying to get to Los Angeles but he took a wrong turn in Arizona because a troll tried to eat him and-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Adam holds up his hands. "Are you really from Arkansas?"

"Yeah," Kris shrugs and Adam can hear his accent now, the way his vowels drawl. "Kris Allen."

Adam shakes his hand and the thunder booms again. "Okay, you are so not staying here. There is a perfectly good house right there."

"He hurt his hand," Neil chirrups. That explains the first aid kit, Adam thinks.

"Come on, I'll take a look at it inside," he holds his hand out because Kris is looking like he wants to bolt and the rain is getting heavier. Adam can barely see the house through the rain that is turning the air into a horizontal puddle. They have to get inside because the storm doesn't look to be getting any better and the wind rattles the whole tree. "It's okay, Kris, it's going to be okay. We can call your parents later, all right."

"I'm not going back!" Kris shouts and he actually pushes Adam away. There's a deafening clap of thunder and for a second, Adam is genuinely terrified that he's going to fall out of the tree. "You can't make me go back!" 

"I'm not trying to!" Adam snaps. "I am trying to get you into the house before you catch pneumonia and _DIE_!" 

The rain comes pouring down and Adam abandons any attempt to reason with this crazy kid. He grabs Kris with one hand and Neil with the other and they mostly fall out of the tree, just as the skies open again. It isn't raining any more, there's a full on airdrop of water and they're all soaked to the bone even before Adam bodily drags them all inside and slams the door.

A final blast of rain follows them in and Adam's stone, wet and slippery, slides down inside his shirt, rolling so the cold side presses into the swell of his belly. Adam yelps and lets go of Kris, who proves how clearly absolutely fine he was by falling over. There was a sound, between a shriek and the fairy chimes that rattled Adam's brain inside his skull and Kris buried both his hands under his tatty sweater. 

Adam opened his mouth to ask what the fuck but his stone is suddenly hot as a candle flame and he yelps in a distressingly high pitched voice that sounds like Alvin the chipmunk on helium. Kris is pulling at his sweater and was there a crack? Has this kid just broken his leg or something? Adam is going to be grounded into the next epoch if he just let one of Neil's friends hurt himself.

Then Kris actually pulls his sweater off and Adam's train of thought falls off a cliff. Right there, tucked up against Kris' chest, is a stone. A stone that looks almost like Adam's stone, except a half inch bigger and with cracks running along the length of it. A stone that is in fact, Adam realizes with a dull sense of shock, an egg.

Kris cradles it like it's made of china or something, his whole face creased up in worry and he flinches back when Adam tries to reach for him. The whole house is cold and dark and Neil is staring at him and looking like he wants to shout at Adam or something. Adam waves at the fireplace in the living room and glares when Neil hesitates. It's only when he hears Neil stumbling through a fire-spark spell that Adam reaches for Kris again.

"Hey, hey," Adam tries really hard to keep his voice steady and calm but seriously, Kris is going blue around the edges. He's starting to shake, the same shivering that Adam can feel vibrating down his own backbone. "It's okay. Really it is."

Kris curls away from him and Adam has to fumble with his own clothes for a minute. His fingers won't bend properly and now he's shaking too but he finally manages to roll his stone out of his pocket and holds it out.

"Look, I understand, okay?" 

Kris looks up and his eyes go like _cartoon-character_ wide. Adam tries not to squirm but Kris is staring at him like he's Bigfoot or something. So, like he always does when he gets nervous, Adam starts to babble.

"I got it for my birthday, I mean, I just woke up and it was there. I thought it was the fairies because you know, I help my mom with the gardening and we have like a whole colony in the rosebushes. I mean, like, they've been there forever and my grandpa doesn't like them but-" he takes a deep breath. "And I'm rambling now so if you could please say something before I make a total fool of myself, that would be awesome."

"I-how long have you had it?" Kris asks and his egg hums just loud enough for Adam to hear. "I mean, him, obviously."

"Since I was ten," Adam says. "I didn't know- I guess, I thought it was a stone, like a wizard's stone, you know?" 

"Those don't come until you're older, like sixteen or something," Kris says with all the authority of a ten year old. "Eggs have to come earlier."

"How do you know that?" Adam demands testily.

"She told me," Kris says simply, cuddling his cracked egg and wow, the gold makes his fingers look almost grey and yeah, now Adam remembers; hypothermia, frostbite and the many, many punishments that will follow if he lets Kris get dead or hospitalized. Adam can ask him about this 'she' later.

"Okay, we can get back to this," Adam promises, pulling off his sweater to make a soggy nest for his stone/egg on the table. His belly sags under the end of his t-shirt so Adam tucks his shirt into his pants, which dribbles cold wet water into his underpants and he shivers again. "But you need like a hot shower and a whole pot of hot chocolate. You are so not allowed to get pneumonia."

He gets Kris upstairs and runs him a bath. He even gets a extra towel for Kris to put his egg on and folds it on the lid of the toilet. He takes Kris' clothes and leaves some of Neil's clothes, then goes back downstairs to see why Neil hasn't gotten the fire lit yet.

He's halfway down the stairs when the lights flicker and go out and Adam has to catch hold of the railing to be sure he doesn't fall. That's the power gone, Adam thinks grumpily. It means no phones, no television and nothing to eat that can't be cooked with magic. Adam is just grateful that they have runes on the plumbing so there's always hot water. He goes back and knocks on the bathroom door.

"Kris? You okay in there?"

"I'm good!" There's some splashing around. 

"The tank has runes, so there's plenty of hot water, okay? I'll leave a cantrip outside the door but you need to be careful when you come downstairs, all right?" Adam waits for Kris to say that he's okay. "The heating isn't magic, so you do need to come back downstairs to the fire so you don't freeze. If you're not down in half an hour, I'll come back up, okay?"

"Okay!" Kris calls and Adam conjures up the cantrip. He has a moment of worry; Adam's cantrips are always butterflies and most of the guys he knows think it's girly and stupid. But it's not like he can leave Kris and his egg up here in the dark. Stupid growing up and being responsible.

"Half an hour," he reminds Kris before turning back downstairs to see why his doofus of a little brother hasn't gotten the fire lit yet. Neil isn't even in the living room. He's in the kitchen staring at Adam's stone which is glowing like a pre-dawn sky and humming. Adam vaguely recognizes the music, it's low and uneasy.

"What are you playing at?" he snaps at Neil who jumps like he didn't hear Adam coming in. Given that Adam squelches with every step and he's breathing heavily from the stairs and casting the spell, Neil must just be being a dick. "Don't touch that!" 

"I didn't," Neil protests too fast to be credible and Adam snatches up his stone. The humming changes pitch against his skin, a trilling bubble of sounds and Neil stares at him like Adam just conjured up a _djinn_ to do the dishes.

"Why aren't you lighting the fire? Do you _want_ to catch a cold?" Adam glowers at him. "You're still wearing wet clothes and Mom's going to freak if you get sick. Go get changed and I'll light the fire."

"But-" Neil starts and Adam just stares at him. "...it's dark up there?"

Adam hasn't even caught his breath after the cantrip upstairs but he starts chanting and his stone matches the rhythm. The magic gathers in tiny specks of silver light in front of him and there's the second where the spell catches and a whole swarm of butterflies flash into existence. They're animated, fluttering and spreading out, to light the way to the stairs.

"Huh," Adam and Neil say in unison. Adam's never been able to do _that_ before. Neil looks down at the stone, opens his mouth and snaps it shut.

"I'm gonna just....go upstairs," Neil says and edges away. The butterflies flicker up and brighten just as he passes. Another thing that Adam's spells haven't done before. He follows Neil out as far as the living room and looks at the fireplace. There is absolutely no way that this is going to end well.

After five minutes, most of Adam's hair is ashy or singed and there's enough smoke in the air that the alarms would be going off if they did have power but there is a fire. It's only in the fireplace even! And Adam is totally dry now. He's a little scorched but he's dry. Having his stone in his hand makes his magic like super-charged and Adam kinda wants to see how far he can push it.

He's looking at Neil's science project and wondering if he could make the volcano really erupt when two sets of footsteps start down the stairs. Neil's voice floats out of the dark and Adam rolls his eyes. He is doing that dorky thing where he asked like a billion questions in one breath and Kris' voice is being drowned out but he's trying to keep up. Adam should tell him to save his breath; the best way to manage Neil in hyper-curious mode is to wait until he passes out from oxygen-deprivation.

"Hey, dork-face! Make Kris some hot chocolate while I get changed," Adam hollers because he totally wants to talk to Kris about the stones/eggs/magic-power-ups but he doesn't want to have what is promising to be an epic conversation with ashes in his hair and in stupid dried wet clothes.

He ducks into the back kitchen where there's a change of clothes in a bag. It's like two days old clothes but it means Adam doesn't have to wear charred clothing and they aren't that worn. He grabs the first-aid kit from where Neil dropped it just inside the back door.

Kris is cross-legged in front of the fire with his egg settled on a cushion in his lap and he lets Adam stick Band-Aids over the scrapes on his hand and elbow. With the blood washed away, the scrapes are thankfully shallow. Neil is totally trying to be cool, while hanging off the couch with stars in his eyes. Also, Kris is singing. Adam only recognizes the song because Chelsea, one of the girls in Music, sings it as her solo. She's from England and thinks _Jerusalem_ is the greatest song ever written.

"Is she okay?" Adam asks. It's not precisely what he meant to ask but it's so solidly and obviously the _right_ question that he doesn't try to take it back. He barely notices how his stone hums or that he's still got it cradled against his heart.

"She's fine," Kris smiles distractedly. "She's just really impatient, you know? She doesn't want to wait for the Summerlands."

"Wait for the Summerlands to do what?" Neil demands and Kris looks up at him, fingers stroking over the cracks. Adam is certain, just from the way that Kris looks at Neil like he's the biggest dumbass in the world, that Kris is a big brother too. Somewhere in Arkansas, there's another tiny boy with brown eyes who's just as big a pain in Kris' butt as Neil is in Adam's. It'd be kinda cool, if Kris wasn't just a kid too.

"She doesn't want to wait until we get to the Summerlands," he says, careful and slow like Neil's an idiot. Adam could really get to like this kid. 

"But you are in the Summerlands," Adam points out. "This is San Diego."

Kris blinks and his egg pulses triumphantly. "But LA is the Summerlands." 

"No, LA's just the heart - the Summerlands is all of California and Arizona and-" Neil hesitates and Adam laughs at him. 

"I didn't know," Kris says quietly and Neil doesn't notice the way his voice wobbles on the 'oh' in 'know' but Adam does. 

"It's cool," he says. "What didn't she want to wai-?"

There's another cracking sound and Kris' egg starts to come apart. It's like watching a slow-motion firework; all brilliant light spilling out of the shell. The whole shell comes apart and a dragon, just barely bigger than a kitten, spills out onto the cushion. It- _she_ is a mad tangle of light and magic, not yet solid but with blinking big blue eyes and shaking out ghostly wings that ripple in flows of light and color. They haven't settled yet so they flicker between oversized bat-wings and delicate gossamer webs and long feathers. She's all shifting coils, though Adam can see legs tapering down to toes. Five, six or seven toes. It changes with every pulse of rainbow-bright light.

She's beautiful.

"Wow," Neil breathes over Adam's shoulder and Adam sticks his free hand out to keep him on the couch. Kris pets his dragon carefully, untangling neck and tail and wings, and he doesn't wince when she gnaws on the knuckle of his hand. He looks tired and happy but all jumbled together like Adam's mom looks when she visits Grandpa. Kris is way too young to look like that, Adam thinks and he's surprised again by the sudden wish that Kris didn't have to look like that. He's not used to feeling protective.

"We've got hot dogs," he offers. "If she's hungry. Or there's pizza?"

Kris' stomach rumbles and he blushes, pink under the golden light of the fire. His dragon coils herself up around his forearm and rests her pointy chin on his shoulder. She trills, soft and sweet and Kris grins, lopsided and adorable. "Um, I'd like the pizza but she needs meat, I think."

"Does she have a name?" Neil asks and Kris carefully lifts his dragon off his arm and back into his lap. She preens when he pets her and Kris looks distracted.

"Not for sharing, I don't think," he shrugs apologetically. 

"There was something about that," Adam turns to the bookcase behind him. His advanced magic studies books are stacked on the bottom shelf. There isn't a lot about dragons, which only now seems odd to him but there was one chapter, Adam remembers, that mentioned them.

"Yes, here: 'Dragons are creatures of all Worlds and therefore fall under the genus of _Veritas Obscura_. As is typical of the genus, a dragon's true name is instrumental in their magical resistance. A Wizard trying to cast magic on a dragon without knowing its True Name will not succeed. Given this, it follows that a dragon's True Name can be used to manipulate or control them so a dragon will customarily withhold their true name from all but their chosen rider. The correct form of address to a dragon is _Draco_ for the male and _Dracae _for the female.' Told you there was something," Adam says smugly.__

__"Geek," Neil says a little bitterly._ _

__"So, she'd be Dracae, then?" Adam says and Kris looks up. Dracae trills again, fanning out her wings and they laugh. "All right, let me see what I can find in the kitchen for you, Dracae."_ _

__He carries his own stone into the kitchen with him and puts it on the sweater on the table while he digs through the fridge. There are hot dogs and there's a fillet of steak. It's his dad's but Adam can't really justify feeding mystery meat hot dogs to a baby dragon if there is steak._ _

__Adam takes the pizza out of the freezer and puts it into the oven, feeding it a tiny tendril of power to heat it. He chops the steak into little pieces and hesitates about cooking it. Dragons are carnivores, like hippogriffs and griffins, so that means they like raw meat, right? Or then again, they had fire breath so maybe they cooked it?_ _

__He leaves it raw in the end. It would be harder to un-cook it with magic than to cook it if Dracae decides she doesn't want it raw. Adam's mom keeps a book of BBQ spells in the kitchen and Adam knows them all. He manages to juggle pizza, stone and steak long enough to get back into the living room. Neil is still firing off questions and Kris is still not smart enough to just let him run out of air._ _

__Most of it is about Dracae, who does like her steak raw and eats every single chunk of it, then licks out the container noisily. She's still not solid, more a suggestion of a shape in swirling blobs of light but Adam thinks she looks a little fatter. He makes Kris eat about half of the pizza because he is seriously too skinny and too small._ _

__Neil does make hot chocolate, after Adam threatens to set his Spiderman underwear on fire. Neil opens his mouth to be a smartass then visibly remembers that he's _wearing_ his Spiderman underpants and goes to make the hot chocolate. Kris doesn't notice, too wrapped up in fussing over his dragon. Adam waits until Neil is out of the room before he scoots a little closer._ _

__"Kris?" He starts hesitantly because it's late and it's been a very exciting couple of hours and he should be thinking about getting them all to bed and finding a phone that works to call his mom but he needs to know first. "Why did you run away?"_ _

__Kris goes very still and Dracae hisses, a hateful, furious sound. Her colors shift to reds and oranges with violent yellow undertones. There's a puff of fire too, blue-yellow and hot enough that Adam feels it even from three feet away._ _

__"Arkansas is...it's not like it is here," Kris says slowly. "Neil's been telling me about it. We're...different. In Conway, everybody's part of the church but Neil says you're not."_ _

__"No," Adam says. "We're Jewish."_ _

__"I didn't think that was still a thing," Kris admits. "Everyone in Conway is Christian and everyone goes to Church and says their prayers to keep the witchings away."_ _

__He clips the 'g' off the end and his voice sounds a little deeper._ _

__"Pastor Bobby, he's the church's pastor..." Kris flinches a little as he says the name and Dracae snarls. "He don't like magic. Like, really not. He says it's the Devil's work and when Cale's Wizard Stone came, he told Cale's parents to beat the Devil out of him."_ _

__"The fuck...?" Adam breathes._ _

__"Cale burnt his house down," Kris swallows and Dracae curls herself around his hands. "I don't know if he made it out. Nobody talks about him anymore and I can't ask or my dad will..."_ _

__Adam edges closer, one eye on Dracae who is swelling out like a slow motion supernova. He puts a tentative arm around Kris' shoulders and Kris sags into him. He's shaking and sniffling a little and Adam tugs him a little closer, rocking them back and forth. Neil creeps into the room, balancing three mugs. He looks at Kris, then at Adam and sits down beside the sofa, putting the mugs down carefully._ _

__"She came on my tenth birthday," Kris says against Adam's neck after a few moments. Dracae is big enough now to coil around them, a luminous dragon shape of smoke and heat. She's still growling and hissing like a boiling kettle just before it whistles. "I thought she was beautiful. She sang for me and I thought she was the best present ever in the whole world."_ _

__Adam can imagine Kris with a big goofy smile, being a total dork about it. Dracae croons, fluty and soft and totally at odds with the red/orange/black smoke thing she's rocking right now._ _

__"I didn't want the Pastor to know about her," Kris' voice is very quiet. "I didn't know what she was but she was magic and she was mine and she wasn't evil. She wasn't! I knew she wasn't and I didn't want to have to listen to him shout. I thought my mom-"_ _

__Kris breaks off and Dracae's snarl rumbles around the room, louder than the thunder outside and Adam hugs him, his stone-egg pressed between them and rocks him back and forth. He tries singing - which is awkward and horrible because Adam's voice is cracking and hopefully going to break soon - and Kris doesn't scream or anything._ _

__"What about your mom?"_ _

__"I thought my mom would understand!" Kris wails. "I thought she'd be on my side."_ _

__He's actually crying and crap, crap, crap. Adam is not in any way equipped to deal with crying kids. Neil's mostly gown out of crying but Adam's standard operating procedure is to get his mom as fast as humanly possible when he does. He's really not sure what he's supposed to do with a crying kid and the increasingly huge dragon that's filling his living room._ _

__"But the Pastor came and I-he tried to take her _away_ " Kris' voice goes up in a broken shriek and Adam feels like he's swallowed a whole big chunk of ice despite the way Dracae is now taking up pretty much the whole living room. "I told him that she wasn't evil or devilish or any of that stuff. I told him all that and he wouldn't listen! He was shouting and he told me that if I didn't give her to him, I'd be damned and burn in hell. And my mom and dad were right there but they didn't say anything and he tried to just _take_ her and-"_ _

__Kris sounds like he's going to choke and Adam rubs circles against his back. Kris shakes under his hand, big shuddering jolts and he's cold._ _

__"He tried-" Kris hiccups. "He tried to take her and I tried to stop him but he's bigger than me and I couldn't-"_ _

__Adam hugs him again and his stone-egg is humming like a bumble-bee in a soda-can between them._ _

__"I dropped her," Kris manages finally._ _

__He's barely even able to whisper it and the whole room goes quiet. Dracae collapses back into her original size and scrambles up his sweater to curl around his neck. She's growling or purring, it's hard to tell and her scales scrape across Adam's cheek as she snuggles close. The living room feels like a huge cave filled with shadows and secrets. The storm outside is almost gone; Adam didn't notice when the thunder stopped._ _

__"You don't have to tell us anything else," Adam says. He should have said that sooner, should have put Kris to bed in the guest bedroom and let him sleep. He can't even imagine how this poor kid made it all the way to San Diego._ _

__"There was this really loud crack," Kris says against his neck. "I thought-"_ _

__"It's okay," Adam rocks him back and forth. He's not sure how long it takes but Kris calms down by slow degrees. "It's okay. You're safe, Kris. I promise, you're safe."_ _

__It's the truth. Adam will make it be true. Kris snuffles, going heavy against Adam's side and Adam's t-shirt is gross and horrible with tears and snot and there's a part of him underneath the horror and need to comfort Kris that's chanting 'ick-ick-ick' on infinite loop._ _

__He winds up practically carrying Kris upstairs, balancing his stone-egg between them while Dracae hisses every time he jostles Kris. Adam finally gets him into the spare bedroom and god, his shoulders hurt and his back hates him. Kris flops down into the bed like one of the teddy bears that Adam's Nana bought him. Dracae curls up on the pillow beside his head. Adam pulls the covers up and she opens one eye to look at him. Adam has a moment where he thinks she's going to bite him but instead a thin pink tongue darts out to lick his thumb._ _

__"Goodnight Kris," Adam pats the covers smooth. "Goodnight, Dracae."_ _

__Neil is standing in the doorway, eyes big as basketballs and Adam shoos him out so he can close the door behind him._ _

__"Oh my god, Neil, you are in _so much trouble_!" _ _

__"What?" Neil looks indignant. "What did I do?"_ _

__"You don't bring people back to live in our tree house, Neil, for fuck's sake," Adam hisses, waving him into Neil's room which is a rubbish heap like always. "Especially not a kid. Extra-especially not a kid with a freaking _dragon egg_! What is wrong with you!?" _ _

__"I couldn't tell you! You'd tell Mom!"_ _

__"What were you expecting to happen here, Neil?" Adam demands. "What if he got sick? You knew he was hurt, what were you going to do if he was _really_ hurt!? What if he'd gotten an infection or pneumonia?"_ _

__"I would have taken care of it," Neil crosses his arms over his chest. "And it's not like you aren't hiding stuff too, dork-face. How long have you had that egg in your drawer, Adam? How come you didn't tell Mom about that?"_ _

__"That's not the point," Adam snaps. "You are such a little shit, you know that?"_ _

__"Fuck you," Neil snarls right back and Adam's stone hums warningly against the inside of his pocket and he takes a big breath._ _

__"Okay, it's late and you need to get to bed," Adam holds up a hand. "I'm going to make sure all the wards are set and then I'm going to bed. I don't think Mom's going to be home tonight so I have to do that. Don't forget to wash your teeth, okay?"_ _

__Neil grumbles but he's yawning too hard to complain so Adam gets out of there before he can argue. The wards don't actually need him to do anything but Adam's a little freaked out and he kinda wants his mom. He's not sure what he should do; Kris' parents are hundreds of miles away, and even if he wants to kick Pastor Bobby in the nuts, Adam can't leave the house._ _

__He's not sure what you're supposed to do; dragons are kinda just there. None of his books talk about them and their riders or anything like Kris said about eggs just showing up. Kris was coming here; did Dracae want him to come here? Did Dracae think Kris would be safe in LA?_ _

__Adam looks down at his stone and yeah, now that he looks, he can't believe he never noticed it was an egg before. He feels sorta stupid now, particularly since the egg is bigger than it was back when he got it first. Adam just never noticed._ _

__He goes downstairs all the same and tidies up everything. His mom is going to fucking freak as it is. The last thing Adam wants is to give her an excuse to take it out on him. The last of the storm winds gust against the windows with a spatter of rain rattling against the glass. It's cold, the fire is down to embers without fuel or magic and Adam smothers it with a spell on his way through to the kitchen. He throws the pizza box and the immaculately clean steak container into the recycling and goes back to sit on the couch._ _

__He has to get up to change his shirt but then he goes back to waiting for his mom. His egg stays on his lap and he rubs his thumb along the curve of it. It's still singing and Adam wonders why it hasn't hatched yet. Does he have to break it? Just thinking about cracking it makes his gut tie up in knots and Adam feels sick just thinking about it._ _

__But if the egg had come to him...was that what Wizard Loft had found in the tests? Was that a bad thing? Would his mom and dad make him give it up? Adam doesn't like the way that sounds. He doesn't want to be the reason that his mom and dad have been fighting. He doesn't know what to do or what's the right choice. He should be thinking about giving up his egg but just thinking about it makes him feel sick. He's not Kris, though; Adam doesn't want to run away from home. His parents won't react like Kris' family did. They won't, Adam insists to himself._ _

__Adam wonders who exactly, he's trying to convince. His egg starts to hum 'Time of My Life' and Adam curls up on the couch._ _

__It's nearly dawn when his mom throws the door open. Adam, graceful as a swan with a concussion, falls off the couch. The egg stays on the cushion that was on Adam's lap so it's fine. Adam double-checks, just to be sure before he belatedly looks up at his mom. She's dropped her bag right there in the hallway, right in the puddle that had leaked under the door._ _

__"Mom! Hi," Adam stands up, cupping his egg to his chest and smiling as sincerely as he can. "You're um...home!"_ _

__"Adam," his mom says after a long second. "What is that?"_ _

__"Um..."_ _

__"Adam Mitchel Lambert," his mom doesn't shout. Her voice just fills the space between them and Adam swears that he feels the vibration up through the soles of his feet. "What. Is. That?"_ _

__"It's...I mean, it's..." Adam fumbles for the right answer. "Mine. It's mine."_ _

__"Oh."_ _

__"And, yeah," Adam swallows. "I know what this is. Promise not to freak?"_ _

__"I promise I'll try," his mom forces a smile and Adam looks down at his egg._ _

__"A friend of Neil's has been living in the tree house for like a week," Adam says in a rush. "His name is Kris, he's from Arkansas and he ran away from home because he got an egg and his pastor tried to break it and he kinda did break it and she hatched like right here and she's really weird and like mostly magic and kinda cool-"_ _

__"Holy cow, Adam," his mom steadies him with her hands on his shoulders. "Would you breathe!?"_ _

__Adam heaves in a whole lungful of air and gasps a bit. His mom is smiling but there are lines bracketing it and she looks tired. She looks, Adam realizes slowly, like she does after she and his dad have been fighting. Adam swallows again and his egg's song goes very quiet in the clumsy silence._ _

__"Is Kris okay? Does he need a doctor or a Healer?"_ _

__"He has a scrape here," Adam rubs the side of his hand. "And some scrapes on his elbow when he tripped in the kitchen. It's nothing serious."_ _

__"Okay," his mom relaxes a little. "Did he tell you his surname, Adam?"_ _

__"Why?" Adam asks, genuinely puzzled._ _

__"Adam," his mom sighs. "I have to tell his parents where he is and-"_ _

__"No!" Adam protests immediately. "Mom, you can't! He can't go back!"_ _

__"Sweetie-" his mom starts again but Adam barges straight over her, almost shouting._ _

__"You _can't_! They scared him and they _BROKE HIS EGG_!" He is shouting by the time he gets to the end of the sentence. "Mom, it's not safe! Not for them either - he has a _dragon_! Who totally loves him and she'll...she'll _eat_ them or something!" _ _

__"Adam?" Kris' whisper spins him around and Kris is standing at the top of the stairs with Dracae curled around his shoulders like a feather boa made of magic and light. He looks frightened and Adam turns to look back at his mom. He's angry and frightened and absolutely certain that his mom is not going to send Kris back to Arkansas. His egg thrums against his chest._ _

__He's not sure what his mom sees when she looks at them both but she sighs and turns away to close the door. Kris scoots down the stairs to stand just behind Adam. He feels the heat radiating off Dracae against the back of his neck and her low rumble is perfectly pitched as a base line to the song of Adam's egg. Adam's mom snaps the deadbolt on and Kris jumps a little, pressing closer to Adam._ _

__"You must be Kris," Adam's mom says after a minute._ _

__"Yes, ma'am," Kris squeaks. "Pleased to meet you."_ _

__"Well," she smiles. "You're certainly more polite than the friends Neil normally brings home. Be welcome, Kristopher, into our home and at our hearth. Be welcome, Dracae, to our home."_ _

__Adam feels the magic around them shifting like one of his magic instructor's cats shifting position under a sunbeam. It resettles and the whole house feels warmer, the shadows look softer and Adam feels the tension in his shoulder ease, just a bit. Kris relaxes and Dracae's rumble shifts towards a purr instead of a growl. Adam's mom smiles at all three of them._ _

__"Now, since I don't suppose either of you boys wants to go back to sleep?" She pauses just long enough for Adam and Kris to shake their heads vigorously. "I'd better get some breakfast started. Are pancakes okay, Kris or would you like cereal instead?"_ _

__"Pancakes are fine; thank you very much, Mrs. Lambert," Kris says politely. "I can help you set the table?"_ _

__Adam shushes him but his mom's eyes have gone soft and she's smiling._ _

__"Well, thank you very much, Kristopher. That's very nice of you," she ruffles his hair and Adam darts a terrified glance at Dracae who not only doesn't try to bite his mom but sticks her chin up in an obvious demand for scritches. His mom runs a finger along the line of her jaw and Dracae's scales blush pink and red. "Oh, aren't you just the most precious thing!"_ _

__She steers Kris and Dracae into the kitchen which leaves Adam standing in the hallway, feeling bitter. His mom wasn't supposed to be nice. Kris wasn't supposed to be perfect and polite and the sort of kid his mom actually wanted to keep. Adam's seen the movies - this isn't how it's supposed to go. He _should_ run away now; maybe then his mom wouldn't be getting all soft-eyed over some strange kid she only met five minutes ago._ _

__The pancakes are delicious, though._ _


	2. Chapter 2

It's probably the weirdest breakfast Adam's ever had and that includes the time when his mom brought a troll who'd been sleeping down at the end of their garden. His mom acts like everything is fine but Neil's eyes look like they're going to pop out of his face every time Dracae hops off Kris' shoulder to orbit the frying pan hopefully. She's mostly golden today, the warm sunny color of summer afternoons when the heat is just a big oppressive blanket.

She's still every bit as magical as she was last night even in the painfully bright morning sunshine. Adam knows he's staring but she's so-so _fantastic_. Adam's never seen anything so beautiful and he can't help the way it makes him want to just look at her flitting around the room.

Kris is being as frankly adorable as possible; he keeps calling Adam's mom 'Mrs. Lambert' or 'ma'am' and he clears the dishes off the table without needing to be asked. Adam can totally see the doting look in his mom's eyes and he wants to glare at Kris for setting the bar so high for him and Neil. Kris is going to be his mom's new standard of good behavior, Adam can just tell. He actually starts washing dishes - in the sink, even - and Adam's mom just about melts.

"It's okay, honey, you just put them in the dishwasher," she says with this big stupid grin like Kris is just that adorable. Which he is, Adam admits privately but still! Who doesn't know how to work a dishwasher?

Kris, apparently. He looks around the kitchen and right past the dishwasher. Dracae lands on his shoulder, gold shading to amber and she snorts a thin trickle of smoke. Adam recognizes that shade of orange-gold and he clutches his egg a little closer. His mom looks over at him, then back at Kris.

"Adam, help Kris load the dishwasher," Adam's mom says before things can escalate. "Kris, honey, you're a guest. Sit down, have some more pancakes."

"It's no trouble, Mrs. Lambert," Kris says earnestly but when Adam goes over and pulls open the dishwasher, Dracae's smoke evaporates and she shades back to gold with a trill. There aren't any really dirty dishes anyway; Dracae licked all the plates. Adam looks at her and nearly laughs when he realizes she's settling into the dark gold color of maple syrup.

He helps Kris load the dishwasher and his mom sends Neil to get dressed for school. Neil is a little brat about it. "But, moooooooooom! I don't _wanna_ go to school!"

"Neil, you go upstairs and wash your teeth," his mom says in her best 'you are going to do exactly what I tell you to, right now, Mister!' voice. "Adam, honey, you and Kris finish clearing the table. I'm going to have to give you a note for school tomorrow. Don't let me forget, okay?" 

"Okay, mom," Adam tries not to sound like a little kid but he's a little freaked. His mom never ever, ever lets him stay home from school unless he's, like, dying or something. "Can we have cookies?"

"Sure, hon, whatever you want," his mom says distractedly and now Adam's _sure_ something's terribly, terribly wrong. His mom never lets them have cookies after breakfast. Not even on their birthdays! He turns back to Kris and tries not to freak him out too. "Does Dracae want the last of the bacon?" 

"Um," Kris looks at the table where Dracae is swallowing the last of the bacon in big gulps. "I think she already um, ate it?" 

"It's cool," Adam grins. "Neil does the same thing. After we're done, do you want to go play Nintendo?"

Kris' eyes light up and he actually claps his hands, like a grade-A dork but Adam smiles at him anyway. His mom goes upstairs and Adam hears Neil's complaining getting louder as she shoos him down the stairs towards the front door. Neil has this really unpleasant way of whining that makes Adam want to smack him but he tries really hard to ignore Neil's whining in favor of helping Kris load the dishwasher.

Dracae is helping clear the table, stacking plates that are bigger than her in piles and whistling at them to take them to the dishwasher. Kris is even wiping down the table down and Adam thinks that his mom is going to want to adopt Kris, especially after she hears about Pastor Bobby. It wouldn't be terrible, he thinks, to have Kris as a kid brother. He's way less annoying than Neil is and when Adam's egg hatches, they could go on adventures together.

"Adam," his mom calls from the front door where she's wrestling Neil's coat on. "I have to make a call, okay? You boys stay here and I'll be right back."

"We're going to play Nintendo," Adam calls back. "Okay?"

"That's a good idea, honey," his mom smiles at them both. "I'll be right back."

"It's fine, mom," Adam pours the pixie dust into the dishwasher. "We'll be fine."

"What's that?" Kris asks in a whisper as the front door closes behind Adam's mom. He's looking at the pixie dust and Adam holds up the box. "Pi-ixe dust? Is that made from pixies?" 

"No, that'd be gross," Adam shakes his head. "It's like their food so once we close the dishwasher, it shakes the dust all over the dirty dishes and then you call the pixies and they'll clean them so they can collect all the dust."

"Oh wow," Kris breathes, eyes as big as dinner plates. "I've never heard of anything like that."

"Seriously?" Adam stares at him. "Like, everyone I know has a dishwasher."

"There's a dishwasher in the church," Kris says, screwing up his face as he thinks. "But that's all water jets and soap. It's a type of machine, I think. It's really, really loud and you can't use it on the good china but it cleans dishes really well."

"Why would you wash dishes with water?" Adam laughs. "That's like something out of a movie."

"We always washed our dishes in the sink," Kris says, pouting. "And we always used water."

"Yeah, but..." Adam shrugs as he closes the dishwasher and rubs the small gemstone that will call the pixies. "Isn't that kinda icky? I mean, the dishes are going to be all wet."

"So you dry them," Kris says matter-of-factly and Adam laughs. "Can we play Nintendo now?" 

"Sure," Adam says, standing up on tip-toe to reach the big ceramic jar of cookies. "But mom said we can have cookies."

"She said we could have _a_ cookie," Kris corrects him primly. Adam rolls his eyes. Kris is such a dork but before he can completely despair, Kris reaches up to pet Dracae who is curled around his neck. "Does that mean one for Dracae too?" 

"Heck yeah," Adam promises and Kris grins. "Actually, since Dracae hasn't ever had cookies before, she should have one of each."

Kris hesitates and Adam tries not to grin. "....how many types of cookies? We only have chocolate chip at home."

"We have chocolate: chocolate chip: chocolate chocolate-chip: oatmeal and raisin: orange: chocolate orange," Adam reels off the list and Kris' eyes go really big. Dracae flutters over to land on the lid of the jar and she sniffs vigorously at it, cheeping at Kris who licks his lips. "And like, a whole bunch of types. Mom does charms for a bakery and they give her, like, all the cookies."

"Could I try those cookies?" Kris asks wistfully.

"You're the guest," Adam decides. "Mom wouldn't want me to leave you or Dracae hungry. Then we can play Zelda."

"Zelda?" Kris asks as he steps forward to help Adam lower the jar onto the counter. "I thought Mario was the game on the Nintendo." 

"Zelda is awesome! It's this game about a knight who has to rescue a princess and you have like a sword and a shield and you fight monsters and it's AWESOME!" Adam enthuses. "Plus you have Navi, who is like Dracae, except she doesn't fight but she gives you really awesome advice and lets you know where the treasure is and everything!" 

"That sounds so cool," Dracae trills indignantly and Kris pets her apologetically. "But Dracae totally can fight."

Dracae puffs herself up so much that she looks like a party balloon and Adam has to try really hard not to laugh at her. She looks so silly with her tail and wings sticking out of her big round body and Adam is half-afraid that she's going to just pop like the helium balloons Neil got for his birthday.

"Navi's blue," he tells Kris instead. "Dracae's gold so they're not the same."

"Gold's much nicer that blue!" Kris objects. "Gold is like the Olympics and medals and treasure and...stuff!" 

"Yeah, but Navi can hide in the sky and stuff and she glows in the dark," Adam says. He doesn't actually like Navi that much but someone needs to stick up for her.

"Dracae can too glow in the dark! She's a dragon," Kris protests. Dracae comes to settle on his shoulder, still all puffed up. "And when we grow up, I'm going to be able to fly around on her and we're going to have adventures and it's going to be awesome!"

"You can't fly around on Navi," Adam admits. "Dracae might be cooler than Navi there."

"She's cooler than Navi anywhere!" Kris says firmly and Dracae nods so hard that she nearly falls off his shoulder and had to grab onto his shirt (which is one of Neil's old shirts so Adam doesn't care). She cheeps a lot and makes this hilarious growly sound and Adam helps Kris get her back on Kris' shoulder. "Dragons are better than Navis."

"Navi's a fairy," Adam corrects. 

"Well, dragons are lots better than fairies," Kris says stubbornly and Dracae snuggles down against his chest. She's hissing a little like a kettle on the boil.

"Hey, I agree! I'm on your side," Adam holds up his hands and giggles. Dracae is puffing like a steam train. He fishes his egg out of his pocket and holds it up. It's singing still, low and quiet but Adam can feel the vibration through his hands. "Remember?" 

Dracae blows a smoke ring at him and Adam sputters. It makes Kris smile and Adam thinks that he maybe doesn't look like a total doofus when he smiles. He should smile all the time. Dracae flips her wings and squirms around until she's sticking her butt over the cradle of Kris' cupped hands. Then she twists her neck up and back to stick her tongue out at Adam. 

"Dracae!" Kris sounds scandalized and his ears go pink. Dracae looks at Adam and one eye closes in a deliberate wink that cracks him up. "She says that you don't count - you're a fairy-guy. I think she's eaten too much. Fairies are cool too. Not as cool as dragons but they're still cool!"

"I get on okay with the fairies in my mom's rosebushes," Adam admits because flustered and apologetic Kris is really cute. "But I have a dragon egg?"

"Yeah," Kris reaches out but doesn't actually touch Adam's egg. "He sounds really cool."

"You can tell it's a he already?" Adam stares at his egg then looks at Kris.

"He ...sounds like a boy?" Kris says a little awkwardly. "Hasn't he started talking to you yet?" 

"No," Adam looks down at his egg. "Should he be talking? Is it bad if he isn't talking?"

Dracae curls around to bump her nose against the back of his hand and chirrups what Adam really hopes is encouragement. She puts one tiny paw on his hand and Adam can just feel the tiny prickle of her claws against his skin. She chirrups a flute-y string of notes and butts her head against his hands again.

"Uh, that sounded really nice," Adam looks at Kris. "And translated it means...?"

"She says he is talking to you; you just don't understand and when you understand what he means, then he'll be ready to hatch," Kris pets Dracae who makes a sound like a purr and swells up to the size of a puppy. She tips her head right back so Kris can stroke a finger down her neck. "And she says that you can't do it wrong - he's _your_ dragon so you're going to be perfect for each other. That's how it works so, um, you shouldn't worry?"

"Cool," Adam says, petting the smooth curve of his egg. It's a relief, even if he didn't know that was something he should have been worrying about, to know that he can't screw up his dragon. He looks at Kris and Dracae and, yeah, Adam wants that. The same easy affection and devotion and all that - but Adam's dragon is going to be awesome and like bigger than Dracae. If he was a total dweeb, Adam would hug his egg or something. Instead he clears his throat and tucks his egg carefully back into his hoody pocket. "You wanna play Zelda now?" 

"Yeah!" Kris puts Dracae back up on his shoulder and they go into the living room. The Nintendo in the corner looks a little battered but Adam plugs in the cartridge and hits the power button. 

"Okay," Adam says as the music starts playing and Link pops up on screen looking fierce. They're sitting in front of the couch with Dracae alert and attentive in Kris' lap. "This is what you do..."

Kris actually pays attention and he listens to Adam's advice and he's actually pretty good. He probably wouldn't die more than once or twice if it wasn't for Dracae. Dracae is very bad at computer games. No matter how many times Kris and Adam try to explain that it's just a game, Dracae just doesn't get it. Oh, she'll nod along as they explain and chirrup back something that Kris says is agreement but as soon as the fight music starts, she bristles and starts trying to attack the TV. It would be funny if she wasn't actually breathing fire.

Plus, there really isn't room for Kris to hold her in his lap and hold the controller as well. Kris is an enthusiastic player and he keeps leaning forward which squishes Dracae who doesn't like that at all. She sounds almost exactly like Neil does when she squawks and whaps Kris with her wings. Her wings are still delicate shapes of light that Adam doesn't think are dangerous but are really distracting. Kris keeps walking into lava because he forgets that he's holding the controller when Dracae hits him with her wings.

"Um," Adam says after Dracae leaves a scorch mark on the stupid wall-paper that his mom hates. "Maybe we shouldn't play Zelda anymore?"

Kris looks mortified, clutching Dracae tight so she can't attack the biting flower that just ate Link and he's kinda hunched up on himself, like he's trying to make himself smaller and Dracae's colors are shifting between a muddy blue-grey and that dangerous orange color. "I'm really sorry! I keep trying to explain to her and she keeps not getting it."

"It's okay," Adam says immediately because Kris looks like he thinks Adam is going to hit him or something and that's...Adam doesn't like it when Kris looks like that. "Seriously, my mom hates that wallpaper. She's been meaning to change it forever."

"Oh," Kris looks dubiously at the scorch mark and Dracae puffs. She flicks her tail and tries to take off but Kris won't let her go. "No, Dracae! You don't burn people's wallpaper!" 

Dracae chirrups, still flapping her wings and Kris scowls. "Not even if they don't like it and you so did not know that before Adam said it! Lying is a sin, Dracae!"

"Okay," Adam interrupts because Dracae is more orange than anything else and the light on the smoke detector is flashing and the last thing Adam needs is the fire alarm to go. Mrs. Hutchinson next-door will totally call the fire brigade and Adam doesn't think they'll be happy to see a pyromaniac dragon, even if she is only a baby. "How about we go outside?"

The weather is back to being beautiful, the sun is shining and Adam thinks the fairies might be out again. They have a big yard and there's the tree-house or the swing that Adam's dad made from an old tire and maybe if Dracae can go exploring, she won't keep attacking things that are flammable? Kris looks down at Dracae who wilts back to her tiniest size and sighs.

"Yes, please," he says, all polite and formal like he's talking to Adam's mom. "I think Dracae would like to see outside."

Dracae nods so hard that she nearly slips through Kris' fingers. Kris smiles a little and Adam relaxes a bit. Kris follows him back out and Adam collects the stack of cookies as they cross the kitchen towards the back door. It's still locked and it won't open even after Adam turns the key and pulls back the bolt. Adam pulls on the handle for like five minutes but it won't budge.

"What the hell?" He says finally.

"That's a bad word! You shouldn't say that," Kris says anxiously.

"What, hell?" Adam knows his mom doesn't like him using words like that but Kris looks pale. "It's just a word."

"It's a _bad_ word!" Dracae is going orange again and Kris looks like he's gonna puke so Adam gives up and holds up his hands.

"Fine," he looks back at the door. "What the heck is wrong with the door? I've unlocked it and it's still not opening."

"Maybe it's stuck?" Kris says doubtfully.

"No," Adam shakes his head. He can feel his egg vibrating in his pocket. "It's a new door. We got it like a month ago. Our old door used to stick but this one was put in by Hank, he's a friend of my dad's and he's a woodsmith not a carpenter so he made it really, really well. Dad wanted the door to stop sticking so Hank spent like a week making sure it wouldn't. It shouldn't be getting stuck."

"That's weird," Kris says and Adam throws up his hands. 

"Exactly! So something's gotten broken or something and my dad is going to freak."

"Did the woodsmith make it glow like that?" Kris asks after a thoughtful pause.

"What? What glow?" Adam turns to look at the door which is still boring old pine wood, painted blue. "It's not glowing."

"Yeah, it is," Kris insists, reaching out to trace a pattern around the lock. "Right there."

"I think you're seeing things," Adam says after squinting at the door.

Dracae leans precariously far forward to sniff at the door. She sounds like a bloodhound with a blocked nose and Adam thinks she's actually going to fall off Kris' shoulder for second. Finally she sits back on Kris' shoulder and chirrups confidently. 

"Oh!" Kris says. "Really?"

Dracae nods vigorously and Kris looks back the door, tracing out what looks like exactly the same pattern. Dracae chirrups again and Kris nods absently, still staring at the door. Adam looks at the door and there's a second where he can almost see...

"What are you looking at?" 

"There's a spell on the door," Kris says matter-of-factly. "Dracae says it smells like you."

"I don't smell!" Adam objects.

"Not like a bad smell," Kris says hurriedly. "Just like, she can tell that it's your spell? Like handwriting or something?" 

"Don't smell," Adam mutters, sniffing himself surreptitiously. He smells of smoke a bit but that's not his fault! "And I didn't cast any spells on the door."

Dracae takes another dramatic sniff and looks at him like she's judging him. She coils her tail around Kris' neck (which distracts Adam for a second because it looks totally cool, like Kris is wearing a rainbow around his neck) and sings something sweet and light. Kris stops tracing the invisible pattern on the door and tilts his head to listen.

"Dracae says..." he starts, speaking slow and careful like he doesn't totally understand. "That you might not have meant to cast it. Dragon-...dragon-riders don't use magic like Wizards do. It's not so ...controlled, I think she's saying. We don't have to cast Spells."

"How else do we do magic?" Adam demands. "Spells are how magic _works_! You can't do magic unless you're casting a Spell."

Dracae shakes her head, crooning a complicated knot of notes and Kris frowns in concentration. "Dracae says....she says a dragon-rider doesn't need to use a Spell con-construct...we just need the second of concentration and the...exercise of will. I think she means that we don't have know all the words and the-" Kris waves his hands. "-the gestures. We just...wish, I think."

"What? That's nonsense," Adam says. "How does Dracae know all that anyway? She's not even a day old! Even if she's right, how would she know all that?" 

Dracae fixes him with beady eyes and blows a string of smoke rings at him. Then she sticks her tongue out at him and crawls around to sit on Kris' far shoulder. She starts chirruping again like a minute later and Kris tips his head to listen to her.

"Dracae says that she knows because she has to know. That's how dragons work. She knows about magic and how to help me use magic because that's what she's meant to do. Dragons...dragons _are_ magic and she doesn't need to be old to know how to use magic," Kris shrugs at him and Dracae squalls indignantly. Kris winces like she's dug her claws in and Adam winces in sympathy. "It's... _I_ understand what she's saying but it's really hard to find words to explain what she's saying so you can understand."

"And the door's still stuck," Adam observes glumly. "If this is my spell, then why is it still making the door stick?"

Dracae whistles at him in an entirely too smug tone and Adam glares. Kris coughs a little. "Dracae says...it's because you haven't tried to break the spell."

"I thought she said it was about wishing!" 

Another caroling whistle and Kris' eyebrows smoothed out. "Oh, oh! I see. She says it's because you're wishing that the door would open, not that the spell would go away. I think there's a difference."

"You're a big help," Adam muttered, turning to glare at the door. "This is totally crazy, you know that, right?" 

"Mmmhmm," Kris ducks his head and there's a quick flicker of a grin before he adds. "Not as crazy as waking up to find a dragon egg on your pillow, though?"

"...you have a point," Adam admits after a few bitter seconds. "All right then. Just wishing, you said?" 

"Yup," Kris looks at him expectantly and Adam sighs.

"Okay, then," he stares at the door and takes a deep breath. He doesn't even notice that his hands are in his pocket or that the egg is humming sweetly against the tips of his fingers. "Just wish...I want the spell to go away. I want the door to open and not stick again."

There's a rush of electricity, like a snap through the air and the back door flies open. Adam's eyes bug out and Kris is clapping his hands and Dracae croons approval. Then she takes off like a bat out of he- _heck_ , zooming out in the sunlight like a pocket rocket. Kris laughs and chases her out. Dracae is already doing high speed loop-the-loops, zipping across the lawn and through the hole in the middle of the swing. She's fast and as she zooms through the rose-bushes, a whole swarm of fairies come flying out.

Kris skids to a stop and just stares at them, eyes wide. (Adam's seriously starting to think that Kris is a cartoon character, the way his eyes go so big.)

Adam takes a second to swallow and he looks at the door as he passes. It doesn't look any different but there's a second where he can almost see something like a pattern of silver threads, thinner than cobwebs but then Dracae zips past with the whole swarm of fairies right on her tail and Adam hears Kris laugh. When he looks back, the pattern - if it was ever there - is gone.

Dracae zigzags across the lawn. Adam can actually see the grass bending under her as she zooms past. It's weird because in the direct sunlight, Dracae looks like she's made out of spun crystal and as she flashes past, Adam almost loses sight of her. She doesn't seem real...until she hits his ankle doing what feels like Mach 3 and Adam hops around the lawn, trying not to curse.

"Oh my god!" Kris comes running over. "Are you okay? She hit you pretty good."

"Good isn't the word I'd use," Adam grits through his teeth. "Has she always been that spiky?"

Dracae loops around him, still trailing the fairies. She spirals up around him and Kris and Adam gets a mouthful of glitter because apparently fairies can't corner as well as Dracae can. Fairies taste like pollen and dry ice and Adam spits and wipes at his face but there's glitter everywhere. Kris tries to wipe it off and just gets it all over Adam's shirt and his hands. Adam can still taste fairy and Kris starts making snorting noises. 

Adam glares down at him and Kris cracks up. He starts giggling so hard that he falls over and rolls on the grass and Adam spends a second just staring at him. He's still angry but Kris looks so ridiculous that Adam feels his lips twitch. Then he's laughing and Kris is giggling and they wind up lying on the grass, clutching their bellies and wheezing. Adam laughs so hard that he's honestly scared he's going to pee his pants for a minute.

Dracae comes swooping past again. It kinda looks like she's not sure how to slow down because she does like a dozen laps of them before they stop laughing. Even the fairies have to take a break but they're shedding glitter everywhere. Adam is going to be getting glitter over everything he touches for a month!

He kinda doesn't care. Dracae starts shrilling and Kris manages to stop long laughing long enough to get back up on his feet.

"She says she can't stop," he manages over a few last sniggers. "Help me catch her?"

"O-okay," Adam has to take a minute to catch his breath and Kris helps him to his feet. Dracae zips off through the hedges. There's a few indignant squawks and an explosion of feathers when Dracae hits a pigeon. 

So - of course - when Adam's mom gets back, Adam and Kris are running around the garden after Dracae who's squeaking like a fire alarm on helium. They're trying to use Adam's hoody like a net. Adam's a little bruised and Kris' hand is bleeding a little where the band-aid came off and they're both out of breath and dizzy from running so hard.

The only reason Adam is able to keep up is sheer stubborn pride. Kris is a lot faster than should be possible for a tiny little kid. Adam hasn't run this much in _years_ and he's really, really hoping that fourteen is too young for a heart-attack. He's probably red and blotchy and he's sweaty as ...heck. Adam's egg is cuddled up in Kris' shirt on the patio lounger because Adam's paranoid. 

Adam's mom comes out onto the patio. She's frowning a little but as they go running past, she turns to look and Adam thinks he hears her laugh. It's hard to tell; Adam's lungs are trying to implode and he's going to collapse any second now. 

"Kris-!" he warns.

"I've got an idea!" Kris finds a little more speed somewhere and manages a leap that's worthy of Spiderman. Kris must have been on the football team or something. He manages to toss the hoody over Dracae who loops around at hyper-speed and slams into Adam's stomach.

She knocks him back like two feet and Adam hits the ground hard enough that if he'd had any breath left after taking a dragon hatchling to the solar plexus, he would have been winded. He lands on the grass which means he doesn't kill himself. Dracae is shrieking and Adam's hoody is starting to smoke. He yelps and throws the hoody at Kris. 

Dracae has already managed to set it on fire. It mostly disintegrates across the two feet but Kris catches Dracae easily. The ash and one or two shreds of fabric hit the lawn. Dracae curls close to Kris; she's about the size of a cat, colors rippling and random spikes jutting out as the colors shift. She hisses a little, glaring around like there is another hoody lying in wait. Kris pets her back and talks to her in soothing tones.

"Adam, honey," his mom calls. "Are you okay?"

Adam sticks his thumb up in answer. He's just going to stay here for a bit and wait for the world to stop spinning. He has his arms and legs spread so he doesn't fall off the ground as he wheezes. Kris comes over to flop down on the grass beside him and Dracae cheeps, waving her wings enthusiastically. Kris is panting too but he's smiling and he doesn't look like he's dying. Adam hates him for a bit because it makes him feel better.

"Thanks," Kris says eventually. "I'm really sorry about your sweater."

"It's fine," Adam waves his hand at the sky. "Dracae's the one who burned it."

Dracae trills apologetically. Kris lies back on the grass. "She's sorry too. She says she panicked but she's totally going to replace it."

"It's fine!" Adam says immediately. He has a horrible mental image of Dracae as a highway bandit, stealing hoodies at high speed. His mom is laughing in the background. "Seriously, I was outgrowing it. It's not a big deal."

"Boys," Adam's mom calls and her shadow falls over them. "I need you to get cleaned up. We have to go out for a bit."

Dracae and Kris go still and Dracae's colors shift towards red. Adam sits up. His mom is smiling like she does when Grandpa has one of his bad days, all bright and tight around the corners of her mouth. There are a lot more wrinkles than Adam ever remembers seeing around her eyes. Adam pushes up to look at her and Kris kinda edges behind him a little. He's pale and quiet and Adam leans a little closer to him.

"Mom?" Adam asks warily. "Where are we going?"

"There's some people you need to meet," his mom says carefully. Kris flinches back a little and Adam suddenly wishes his egg wasn't like ten feet away. "No, no, honey. It's nothing bad, I promise. Nothing is going to happen without you being okay with it, okay?"

Kris clutches Dracae a little closer and doesn't say anything. Adam's mom comes over and squats down on her haunches. Kris shuffles around so he's hiding behind Adam. He's petting Dracae who is hissing softly.

"Kris, hon," Adam's mom says. "I'm not trying to scare you but this is a big deal, okay? These people, they can help and all we are going to do is talk to them, all right? No-one is going to make you do anything you don't want to, okay? I promise."

Kris presses closer to Adam and Adam's mom looks at him. It's a serious Mom-look, the same one Adam gets when Neil randomly decides something he's been doing his whole life (like going to the doctor) is scary and his mom wants Adam to magically make him grow up. The thing is, though, Adam's really on Kris' side on this one. Kris doesn't want to go home and Adam kinda thinks that if Kris is sent back to Pastor Bobby then Dracae is going to burn Arkansas down. Adam might help, even!

"Kris, we really need to go talk to these people-" Adam's mom starts.

"What people?" Adam demands and Kris presses up close to him. His mom blinks at him. "These people you want us to meet, who are they? Why do we have to talk to them?"

"You'll see," his mom says, looking around. "Honey, I swear, as soon as I can, I will explain. Just not here, okay?"

Adam turns to Kris. Kris is still clinging to Dracae who is a simmering red-orange and he doesn't look up at Adam's mom. "Kris, do you wanna go meet these people?"

Kris shakes his head.

"Would you go meet them if I came with you?" Adam asks before his mom's glare makes his head explode or something. "I can do that, right?"

His mom looks worried but she nods. Kris darts a glance at Adam who tries to look reassuring and adult and all that sort of stuff. Dracae hums and Adam eyes her warily. She's mostly settling into a fiery gold but she still looks pissed. 

"...kay," Kris says reluctantly. 

"Thank you, Kris," his mom says seriously. "Now, Adam, you and Kris get cleaned up and I'll pack lunch, okay?" 

"Okay, mom," Adam waits for her to get up before he moves. Kris is still mostly hiding behind him and Dracae coils herself around Kris' neck as he stands up. Adam picks up his egg which is humming unhappily and looks back at Kris and Dracae. "Come on, you guys. Time for Dracae to learn about baths and soap and stuff."

Dracae's head shoots up and she looks at Kris with wide scandalized eyes. She looks like a cat that's just seen the sprinkler coming on and Adam swallows another giggle. This isn't the sort of situation where you laugh. Kris trails in after him and up the stairs to the bathroom Adam shares with Neil. He doesn't say anything, just washes his hands and face. Adam takes one of the tote bags his mom keeps under the sink and puts a towel in it so his egg is going to be cushioned.

Dracae perches on the very edge of the sink and tries to eat the soap bubbles. She has to stick her tail straight up to balance right and Adam watches Kris fill the sink with water and is totally not surprised when she falls in. It seems to take Dracae completely by surprise and she empties the entire sink over the floor and the walls and the ceiling in a desperate flail of wings and tail. 

It takes her two seconds to empty the sink. Apparently dragon wings make awesome buckets. Adam's soaked. Kris is ...whatever comes after 'soaked'. Dracae tries to climb out of the sink and accidentally turns the tap back on as she scrabbles at it.

"Dracae," Kris starts as he wrings out his t-shirt which Adam doesn't think Neil is going to want back. She trills and splashes the water around inquisitively. She pauses, then splashes more deliberately and her trill dips into a low, satisfied hum. "Dracae, don't do that."

There's steam rising from sink as Dracae starts to sing and Adam looks at the dragon now filling the sink and decides that getting towels is probably the best thing he can do right now. Kris is still talking to Dracae who is splashing around vigorously. Adam grabs an armful of towels and some clothes from the pile of clean clothes and goes back.

The bathroom is full of steam, Dracae's now too big to fit in the sink and she's glowing pink. It's a lot hotter than it was a few minutes ago and Kris is sweating or possibly just still wet from Dracae's bath. Adam holds out the towels and Kris dries Dracae who protests shrilly the whole way through.

Finally, they go back downstairs and Adam's mom is waiting by the door. She's holding the turquoise charms that have lived in a silver box on the mantelpiece ever since Adam can remember. They get taken out every Festival and Adam's mom reworks the charms woven into them. The box is the most magically warded thing in the house; the only person who can touch it is his mom. Adam always forgets until he sees them again but there was one time when Grandpa was here on the Summer Solstice and he had done...something that Adam's mind refuses to bring into focus. Grandpa had had to go to hospital and he'd never come back on any of the Festival Days ever again.

The charms are Old Magic; the kind that Adam's dad talks about when he's drunk and the kind of Magic that fills the Temple during Passover. The rabbi calls it God's Magic but Adam's never really paid attention to it. The charms - there are three of them, Adam remembers suddenly - aren't like that. The Magic at Passover is an ocean, big and slow and more than Adam can imagine ever trying to use. The charms are like stars, dim points of light until you're close enough to feel the gravitational pull.

His mom has had these charms forever, Adam remembers. She's the only one who touches them; the only one who can open the box. Even Adam isn't allowed to touch them so when his mom puts one of them around his neck, Adam's caught between pride and a slinky feeling of dread. The charm is the one that looks like an eye, two shades darker than Adam's eyes but now that he can look at it closely, Adam sees lines of black and silver amid the blue-green. 

His mom kisses his forehead and there's a faint crackle of electric power that makes Adam shiver. He clutches the tote bag with his egg against his chest and his egg sings and Adam's eyes go wide because the song has changed. There are words in the music - true, they're not words that Adam can actually understands but there is definitely words in there. Adam looks at his mom who is smiling at him and hugs his egg tighter. He doesn't notice the shadows in his mom's eyes and he wouldn't have understood if he had.

"Kris, honey," his mom holds out the charm in her right hand. Kris looks at her with wide eyes and Dracae is sitting on his shoulder, watching his mom with narrowed eyes. His mom smiles, just a little. "This is yours."

Dracae sniffs at the charm, looks at Adam's mom and settles back against Kris' shoulder with a trill that makes Kris relax a little. He ducks his head and lets Adam's mom put the leather cord around his neck like a knight taking his charm from his sovereign in all the pictures. Adam has to blink because there's a second, just as the charm touches the skin under the Transformers t-shirt that Neil is going to be upset to lose, where the charm glows gold, lighting up Kris with the same fierce golden light that Dracae looks to be made of. Then he blinks and Kris is back to being a tiny kid with pudgy cheeks and big brown eyes. 

Adam's mom kisses his forehead and Dracae rises up onto her hind legs to touch her cheek against Adam's mom's. His mom laughs a little and this time, Adam does see the way his mom wipes at her eyes. Then she bends down and hugs Kris. He squeaks and freezes for a moment before he hugs her back. Dracae croons soft approval and Adam looks away, feeling awkward and touches the charm around his own neck. It's smooth, warm and solid and with his fingertips touching, the song humming through his bones almost makes sense.

"Right then," his mom declares, standing up straight. "Time to go. Does anyone need to use the bathroom?"

Adam and Kris look at each other then back at her and shake their heads.

"Anyone need a drink of water? Kris, sweetheart, do you need a sweater?"

"No, Mrs. Lambert," Kris says politely.

"Okay, then we're good to go," his mom picks up her purse - the big one with the spell components tucked into a pocket on the side - and unlocks the door. Adam looks at Kris who is chewing his lower lip and lets the bag with his egg in it slide down against his side. On the way to the car, Kris reaches for his hand. Adam pretends not to notice the small fingers curling around his own.

"Adam, you wanna sit up front?" Adam doesn't look at Kris but he shakes his head and gets into the back seat with Kris instead. Dracae purrs low in her throat and Adam settles his egg in his lap and looks out the window. Dracae slithers down into Kris' lap and rolls over, belly-up, and pokes Kris with her tail until he scratches her belly.

Adam's immediately busy trying not to laugh at Kris with his lap full of crooning dragon who is sprawled out with all four of her legs in the air. She's making Kris smile, only a little but Kris doesn't look so terrified and that's good.

His mom drives for three quarters of an hour and Adam has no idea where they're going beyond 'probably North' and the only reason he's sure of that is that he hasn't seen signs for Mexico yet. The skies are a clear perfect blue like there wasn't a huge storm just last night and Adam yawns. In the car, with only boring scenery to stare at, it's hard to stay worked up. His sleepless night and morning of running are starting to catch up to him and as much as he wants to try and work out where they're going, his eyes keep closing without his permission.

He doesn't actually fall asleep but he does drift for a bit with his eyes closed and his chin on his chest. Kris is still holding his hand, Adam can tell by the way it's slowly going numb and the sticky feeling of his sweaty palm. It's not comfortable but it's too much effort to move. He's still listening to Dracae crooning and the song from his egg and the radio station and his mom and Kris talking but it's like it's happening a hundred miles away. He doesn't need to answer until the car starts to slow and he feels Kris tense up as Dracae's crooning shifts into a low rumble of displeasure.

Adam forces his eyes open as his mom takes a turn a little too fast and the car lurches to a stop. Kris is dead quiet beside him and Adam opens his eyes as the sunlight dims. They're parked in front of a castle and Adam blinks once or twice before his brain gets in gear and he realizes what that has to be.

It's not a castle; it's a Keep. He can't see if it has a Tower or not but as his mom opens the door, Adam smells fresh, salty air and knows he's right. The Keeps are the spine of the Summerlands' coastal defense; magical strongholds. The history books say that the Keeps were designed so when the Fae sent storms or terrors in the night, the local people could take shelter in their Keep and be protected by the Wizards. Adam has only ever seen the two Keeps in San Diego which are the Las Vegas of Keeps; half the size but pretending to be bigger and better. They're small, squat buildings that were put up in the sixties and look like they were made of cardboard.

This Keep isn't like that. It's dark grey stone that looks weathered and old. Just looking at it, Adam feels a sense of timeless strength, cool and indifferent. There are no windows, no doors, no way to tell if there's anything inside. It's just rocky grey stone the whole way up. Kris huddles closer against him and Dracae is smaller than Adam's seen her yet, pressed in against Kris' chest and making soft distressed sounds. Adam leans back against Kris and reaches up to touch his charm. It feels blood-warm and the chill from the Keep's shadow fades.

Kris reaches up for his charm and Dracae relaxes, expanding back to the size of a cat and her colors settle into smokey-green and gold. Adam opens his door and Kris scoots across the seat, still holding his hand. Adam doesn't try to pull away; he doesn't like the way the Keep seems to get taller as he cranes his neck to try and see the top of it. Even with his neck bent back so far that it pops, Adam can't see the top.

His mom is standing with one hand on the car and Adam sees her take a deep breath. "Adam? Kris? You boys stay with me, okay?"

Adam doesn't think he's going to go anywhere unless she drags him but Kris is looking at him and Adam squares his shoulders. His mom lifts her hand away from the car and Adam feels the temperature drop. Kris is shivering and Adam squeezes his hand.

There's a flash of light up high, and something comes sweeping down towards, fast as lightning. Adam steps back but there's another flash of light bright enough that he sees the pattern of veins inside of his eyes. The after-image dances in front of his eyes as he blinks and Adam's whole head feels like someone’s hit a gong inside his skull; all the neurons vibrating and when he blinks his eyes, there's a dragon towering over them.

Dracae has her back arched like a hissing cat and Kris is clutching her close. He's pressed in against Adam's side and he's holding Adam's hand so tight that the bones are grinding together. Adam can feel Kris' pulse through the death-grip on his hand, so fast that every beat runs together into a vibrating blur. His mom has edged over so she's standing in front of them and Adam's grateful for her in the tiny little corner of his mind that isn’t' screaming at him to run.

The dragon filling the sky above them is nothing like Dracae. That's the problem. Even when she was big as the whole living room, Dracae never looked like a thing made out of hellfire and snakes. The dragon hanging over them like a storm cloud is made up of clouds of smoke with _things_ coiling underneath. He - Adam's sure without quite knowing why that it is a he - is staring at Dracae in a way that makes Adam want to grab Kris and Dracae, and run until they can't be found again by anyone. His egg is making discordant, unhappy sounds and Adam feels like a stupid little kid. He wants to howl for his mom but the idea of making any sound or moving in a way that is going to make the big bad scary thing notice him makes his breath curdle in his chest.

"Salutations," a voice says and there's a man standing in front of the dragon. He's wearing the sort of clothes that Adam would be madly jealous of if they didn't mean being partnered to the dragon that's still staring hungrily down at them. At Dracae, Adam corrects. 

The sunlight flashes again and there are more dragons; two more dragons, making three of them all together. There are more people too but Adam keeps looking at the first dragon. He's the biggest of the three but he lets himself be shoved back by the smaller, frilled dragons that are crowding around. The bigger frilled dragon was _pink_ ; like, seriously candy-floss pink. So pink that Adam could see an after image glowing on his retinas. 

Adam was starting to think that most dragons weren't as cool as Dracae. Dracae secures her place as Draconic Queen of Cool by making a spirited attempt to bite the pink dragon's nose off. Kris doesn't make much of an effort to stop her and the woman wearing the matching pink robes waves away his half-assed apology.

"Salutations, Dracae," she says instead. "May one seek acquaintance with your rider?" 

Dracae coils up; wrapping herself around Kris' neck like a scarf and hisses at her. 

"I am Elise Miranda, Draco's rider," the woman holds her hand out and Dracae swipes at it with unsheathed talons. "I bid you welcome."

"I am Richard Elliot, Draco's rider," the first man introduces himself and Adam's mom looks back at them when he bows and his cloak billows out, showing the hot green lining. "I too, bid you welcome."

"Does being a rider make you colorblind?" Adam mutters, just loud enough for Kris to hear. Kris giggles, high-pitched and quickly muffled against Adam's shoulder. The third rider doesn't introduce himself, his dragon looks like a coral reef and is watching them both through narrowed silver eyes.

"I'm Kris," Kris introduces himself. Dracae hisses disapproval but the riders smile. They all have really, really white teeth; dragon riders must have a kickass dental plan. 

"Adam," Adam says, still holding tight to Kris' hand. His egg sings out like it's answering him and all three of the dragons turn to stare at him. The first one - now mentally dubbed 'Creepy Dragon' - looks down at him like he's contemplating how Adam would taste. Adam bristles right back at him and his egg hums against his stomach, glowing bright enough to show through the pocket of his hoody.

"You are both very welcome," Richard says. He pats his dragon on the nose. "It has been nearly two years since a new rider joined us."

"Joined us?" Adam gets a sinking feeling and Kris presses a little closer. "He's _ten_! He's still in school! He can't join you! He's just a KID!"

Kris elbows him for the 'kid' crack but he doesn't argue. Adam doesn't look at him because he's watching the way the riders look at each other and smile. It's the way adults always smile when they think you're being a dumb kid. His mom smiles like that when Adam asks when the whole fascination-with-girls thing is going to make sense. His dad smiles like that when Adam tells him he's going to be a Wizard and a rockstar. Adam really, _really_ fucking hates that smile and he will be damned if he is going to take that smile from these colorblind dickheads!

Dracae blows a cheeky smoke ring and Creepy Dragon rumbles. The air vibrates and Dracae puffs up and oh, oh crap, she's starting to go orange. Adam glances down at Kris then pointedly looks at Dracae. Kris startles like he'd somehow missed the fact that his dragon was in the process of going nuclear on his shoulder. He pets Dracae and says something quiet that makes her subside. She breathes a little tongue of fire and somehow manages to curl the end of it so it looks like a party whistle.

The still-nameless rider laughs and after a second, Richard and Elsie join in. Adam and Kris both bristle but Dracae folds her front legs and looks down her nose at the three of them. The still-nameless rider is older than either Richard or Elsie - there are wrinkles under his eyes and his skin is tanned. He's rocking some seriously bizarre sideburns; big wiry tufts of grey hair that hang down to his chest. It's like he has a beard outline but no actual beard. It's seriously distracting; especially when he talks and the sideburns bounce.

"You have spirit, little one," he says. "Both of you do."

He steps forward and bows to them. "Archibald Pensieve Hrothgar, at your service. I lead the riders of the South and it is my place to guide the new arrivals home. I understand that this can be distressing," he is totally directing that at Adam. Adam glowers at him. "But please, Adam, be reasonable. Where else can Kris go? He is a rider. He must be trained."

"He's ten!" 

"His dragon - his Dracae - has hatched," Archibald says patiently. "She has clearly not rejected him-" Kris eeps when Dracae coils tighter around his neck. "-as you can see. His powers are awakening and it is best that he begins to study now."

Adam scowls. Kris looks up at him and Dracae makes a wobbly coughing sound. "He hasn't finished school yet!"

"He will receive a full education in addition to his training," Archibald promises. "There have been riders who have come to us who were not much older than he."

"How _much_ older?" Adam demands. 

"Well, Samantha was thirteen when she came to us," Archibald says but the glossy, assured veneer cracks a little. Adam arches an eyebrow. He's been practicing that expression in the mirror since he was seven and it totally pays off. Archibald looks flustered and a little bewildered.

"How long ago did this Samantha join the riders?" Adam asks pointedly.

"Not more than fifty years," Archibald says in the same way that Adam's mom promises that the new medication will totally make Grandpa less of a dick. 

"Fifty years?" Adam demands incredulously. "The last time you had a kid was _fifty years_ ago?"

"More or less," Archibald says and Adam rolls his eyes.

"You are _so_ not helping your case," he sniffs and Kris giggles, high and delighted. Archibald sighs.

"You are suspicious, Adam," he says. "Well, a healthy curiosity is a good thing and of course, you yourself will be a rider in time...if your dragon accepts you."

Adam's egg growls - there's really no other word for the bass rumble that startles Archibald's dragon back nearly a full foot. Adam pats his egg with his free hand. Dracae trills approval as Kris squeezes his hand and Adam lifts his chin as Archibald pauses. His dragon leans over his shoulder (well, over his whole left side, really) and sniffs at Adam.

Dracae takes the opportunity to take another swipe at Archibald's dragon's nose. She misses by a mile but the dragon pulls back sharply all the same. Kris looks up at her, then over at Adam with this adorable 'she's going to be a brat forever now' kind of look. Adam grins because yeah, she probably is going to be an insufferable brat forever now but Dracae is _fierce_ and Adam is going to love her forever.

"Well, who am I to argue with such experts?" Archibald bows to Dracae. "So then, Adam who is certainly going to be a rider, let us speak of training."

"What kind of training?" Adam demands.

"All will be revealed," Archibald throws out a hand and there's another flash of light. Adam blinks and swears that he's going to punch the next jerk who does that. When he can see again, there's a gate in the wall of the Keep that Adam is damn sure wasn't there a second ago. "Follow me, boys and I will show you wonders."

He sweeps off up the steps as his dragon takes off - hurtling up along the side of the Keep. Adam looks over at his mom who nods at them both. "It's okay, hon. You boys go have a look around. I'll be right here." 

Adam turns back to Kris. "Not the weirdest thing that ever happened, right?" 

"Right," Kris says but he doesn't let go of Adam's hand. Adam tucks his free hand into his pocket so he can hold his egg, now happily humming, as they climb the stairs together. The Keep is magical, so Adam's sort of expecting that it's going to be bigger on the inside. He isn't expecting it to have what looks like its own town.

Seriously, it has a whole different horizon and gardens that stretch out for miles. Kris is bug-eyed and Dracae puffs up in surprise. There are roses the size of sunflowers and fountains that shoot water up so high that Adam can't see the tops for the dizzy whirlwind of rainbows raining down. It's fabulous, surreal and too glossy. It's like being at Disney World; like all the tiny imperfections have been painted over and rubbed out.

It takes five minutes to cross the big lawn and by the time they're starting up the white marble steps to the Keep proper, Adam's skin is crawling. There's enough magic in the air that Adam's should be rocking a static afro and it's all purposeful; like the charms his mom makes to keep the drafts out but the purpose here doesn't feel like that. It feels more like the storm from last night and Kris' shoulder bumps painfully against Adam's ribs.

Kris must be feeling it too and Adam hangs on to his hand as they get shown through the whole tower. There are fifteen riders in the keep; each of them a specialist in some kinda of magic that Adam's never heard of. Considering how much of his time Adam spends being a loser magic geek, that's something else that makes him uneasy. Archibald makes a big show of answering his questions and he's like Adam's Algebra teacher, speaking fast and assuming everyone listening knew what he meant.

The worse part of it, the bit that makes Adam sulky and bitter, is that every new room and every new type of magic just makes it more painfully obvious that Archibald is right. Dragon rider magic isn't like the magic they teach anywhere that Adam's ever heard of. Kris needs to learn this type of magic. To learn this magic, Kris is going to have to stay here.

"Well, not here per say," Archibald explains on the balcony just below the very top of the Keep. It's warm, sunlit and there are wine glasses filled with lemonade. Overhead, the dragons circle in a midnight blue sky filled with stars. Adam tries not to look at them which means he has to focus on Archibald. "This is a Sentinel Keep; we keep a watch on the Pacific seas. Trainees are sent back to the Palace in Los Angeles. The wisest of us retire there when the world begins to pall. Not a calling that I have ever felt but they teach the young."

"How long does it take?" Kris asks, balancing his wine-glass and petting Dracae. "The training, I mean."

"As long as it takes," Archibald holds up his hands and laughs at Dracae's hiss. "Every rider is different and every rider brings talents unknown to the table. Usually about six years but I would not set my heart on that were I in your place."

"That's a long time," Kris says softly and Dracae turns big sad eyes on Adam which is totally not fair. It's not like it's Adam's idea to set training limits! "Would I-...are there holidays?"

"No," Archibald says and he's clearly trying to be gentle but Kris' expression crumples. "It's not safe, you see. Dragons, well, they are somewhat volatile and until the training is complete, they-" he holds his hand out over the railing and his dragon glides close enough that Archibald can stroke down the length of his back. "-well, they're not safe. It's better not to risk it."

"You want to lock him up for six years," Adam interrupts. "With no contact with anyone!?" 

"Well, he can write letters of course," Archibald stutters after a moment. "We're not heartless."

"I don't think my family would want letters from me," Kris says quietly. He's put down the glass and he's cuddling Dracae who is purple and gold and big enough to fill his arms. "Pastor Bobby would make them burn them."

"So write to me," Adam says immediately. He's not even kidding. Kris is kinda cool for a dorky kid and now that Adam can see his future falling into place, he knows that he's not going to make it if he doesn't have someone he can talk to. "I mean, when my egg hatches, I'll be coming here - there, I mean - too."

"Seriously?" Kris looks at him like Adam's been looking at Archibald and Adam sticks his tongue out at him.

"Yes, seriously. Don't be such a dork," Adam holds out his hand and lets Dracae rub an ecstatic cheek against the back of his hand. "Someone has to save Dracae from the horrors of plaid." 

"What's wrong with plaid?" Kris demands and Adam gets so distracted explaining that he doesn't even notice when Archibald steps out and they sit on the balcony, just two kids, a dragon and an egg.

When Adam leaves, alone except for his egg, the sky outside is the same shade of midnight blue. Kris and Dracae come out as far as the gateway, Dracae whining low and miserable in her throat the whole way. Adam feels like shit but Kris has made his choice and Adam doesn't have any actual argument to use that isn't condescending or just selfish. Dracae acts like Adam's a heartless abandoning monster and he gets the sad puppy dog eyes the whole way.

His mom is waiting but Adam stops just on the last step and looks back. He's at the very edge of the spell, he can feel it and Adam's pretty sure that once he steps back into the 'real' world, he's not going to be able to go back. He can see Kris with Dracae, now about the size of a pony and a rainbow of blues and violets. Kris might be leaning on her, with the bright light behind them Adam can't tell.

He waves and Kris waves back and Adam steps backwards. The spell breaks like a soap bubble bursting and the gate - and Kris and Dracae - vanishes.

Adam won't see them again for years.


	3. Chapter 3

Kris' first letter arrives about three weeks after Adam leaves the Keep. It's the best thing to happen in that month even if everything about Kris now makes Adam sound like a melodramatic teenager when he tries to think about it. 

Adam's dad came back the day after Kris left. He came in the front door just as Adam's mom was trying to explain to Neil about how Adam's egg just meant that he was going to a rider when he grew up. The shouting started less than a minute later, and Neil and Adam had to go upstairs. Neil went off to play some stupid game or something on the computer that is technically theirs but mostly Neil’s, and Adam put on his headphones and curled up on his bed.

The shouting lasted for another three days, and every day since has been terse; snapped words and silence. Adam hates it. Neil is writing and Adam finds out he has a blog. Emotional turmoil helps the muse or something. It makes Adam want to punch him in the face and keep punching but he's the big brother. He has to be the mature one.

He starts another growth spurt which is miserable and with his mom and dad fighting over everything, they eat pizza all the time now and Adam gets fatter and he hates going out because he has to leave his egg behind to go out. His dad gets this frowny line between his eyebrows whenever Adam has his egg out and he tells Adam that Adam doesn't _have_ to be a dragonrider. There are supposed to be ways to give the egg back.

Just the idea makes Adam sick and he starts avoiding his dad because there's enough anger floating around the house already. He can't ask for advice on making his egg's song clearer so he spends hours, holding his charm and trying to work out the rhythm of the language that the egg sings in. It's really frustrating when that doesn't work but Adam listens to clips of foreign languages until Neil throws this big screaming tantrum about Adam 'hogging' the computer and Adam slams the door on him and they both get grounded.

School is boring and every single teacher in Adam's whole school knows about his egg so, of course, they all center his lessons on stuff he'll need to know. Adam doesn't believe it; there's nothing like the magic he saw in the Keep. His whole life is starting to feel like a waiting room where all Adam can do is mark time until his egg hatches. He falls into comfort eating which is pathetic and doesn't help. He hates himself for getting even fatter.

After the fifth failed attempt at talking about giving up his egg, Adam's dad starts trying to talk to him about girls and sports - neither of which Adam gives a damn about and the conversations mostly end in awkward silence. Grandpa goes into hospital again but this time, it's something serious and his mom starts spending all her time there. Neil starts working at the middle school paper and gets on his yearbook committee so the house is empty for most of the time Adam's there.

It feels like Adam's whole family is breaking apart into little chunks instead of being one ...well, family. Adam spends most of his time in his room, singing to himself and wishing that his life didn't suck. The only thing he can do that doesn't start an argument is paint his nails and it takes nearly a month to learn how to do that right. 

So, when Adam is woken up from an after-school nap by a fairy poking his nose and gets handed an envelope of heavy, good quality paper, he's really hoping for something better.

"Dear Adam,

It's Kris and Dracae, from the treehouse in your back yard? You said that I could write to you, so I did. Dracae would write too but she can't make her paws into the right shape to hold a pen so she's telling me what she wants to write. She says that of course you'll remember us and that I'm not to be stupid. And she says to say hi to your Draco for both of us. 

She's really looking forward to when you guys come to live here. There aren't any other kids here. We're living in Los Angeles now. The teachers gave us a tower in the Dragon Palace which was very nice of them. There's a lot of room because there aren't any other kids in the Palace and they've given us a library of books that I don't know how to read but Dracae does so she helps me. They say that I need to read all the books but there are millions of them and I think I'll be older than Archibald when I finish.

I met some of the other riders who are training. They're all a lot older and we can't take classes together because Dracae doesn't like their dragons and she keeps trying to bite them. She says they're 'stinky' and sulks if I tell her to stop biting. It's weird though. There are no other girl dragons in training. There are only three other Dracae in the whole city but there are a lot of Dracos. It seems kind weird to me but the trainers don't really seem to know why. I've asked Rochelle, who is the one who is training me and she says that it's a matter of no importance. She says that about a lot of the questions I ask.

There isn't a church in the Palace but there is a chapel and there are a lot of Bibles. It's weird but I think it works. There's a lot of stuff in there that Pastor Bobby didn't talk about which is confusing but there are lots of books. Dracae is learning some of the hymns with me and Rochelle says that if I keep learning that I might be able to get a guitar and there's a piano in one of the rooms. I really miss music but there are no radios in the Palace so I can't listen to anything but the fairy music and it gets kinda same-y sounding after the first two days.

The magic training is kinda dumb. It's most about meditation and letting Dracae grow. Rochelle keeps saying that I need to learn to assert my will but she never tells me what that means. But I have learned that dragonriders can break any set spell. The only spells that we can't break is the UnSeelie curses or something. Rochelle really doesn't explain it very well, so I'm still confused. I can totally see why training takes so long if this is the best they can do.

I'm really not doing anything very interesting so there really isn't anything else to write about. Dracae says that I should tell you that they won't let her eat any of the pigeons and that she thinks that isn't fair. I think that LA air is probably polluted so she'd get sick but she doesn't listen to me. I wish you were here to talk some sense into her because I am so not cleaning up after her when she's sick.

So, um, that's all that I can think of to say. The fairies say that they can carry a letter back if you address it to me and it would be really nice to hear from you but you totally don't have to write if you're busy or you don't want to. I will totally understand, I promise.

Say hi to Neil and your Mom for me?  
Kris (& Dracae)"

Kris' writing is still round and clumsy and there are singe marks on the edges of the paper and what looks like deliberate claw marks at the bottom. There's a sloppy scribble just above it and Adam has to squint to decipher it as 'Dracae' with a looping arrow pointing down to the shredded end of the page. It's something that Adam can totally see Dracae doing and it makes him smile.

He can hear the words in Kris' voice and he reads the letter twice. It must be pretty lonely and he can so totally empathize with Kris' pining for music. He gets kinda fixated on it, looking around at the posters and CDs that clutter his whole room. Adam can't imagine being without music; can't imagine just himself and a piano and silence. It's a nightmare.

He reads the letter again and then does his homework and lies in bed. His egg is humming to itself. Adam can't make himself think of his egg as 'he' yet so it's still an ‘it’ and if it wants to argue, then it can hurry up and hatch. Adam is totally being mature about this but it makes him feel better. His egg is the forgiving sort, he's fairly sure. 

Adam can't sleep. The house is too quiet; his mom did the wards in a hurry and didn't leave any yield in the weave. There's nothing inside the house, now that his dad has locked the door, but what they've brought in themselves. It's so quiet that Adam can hear the electric whirr of Neil's computer screen and the ticking of the clock in his parents' room and every rasp and stutter in his own breathing.

It's bright enough to see Bowie staring down from his wall but the only colour is the silver/blue glow of his egg and even that is pale and washed out. The whole world is still and grey and Adam can't close his eyes for more than a second. His breathing's too loud and he can't make his mind stop spinning. Adam can't even get it to settle on one subject. Silence means too much space for his brain to trip over itself and Adam thinks he's going to go crazy.

Turning on the lights makes him aware of how tired he is but Adam's still not sleepy. He digs around the mess on his desk and comes up with the lavender paper that Neil thought was hilarious and his old CD player. Adam has been making mix CDs since he figured out how to work the CD-burner in the computer and he has a whole spindle full of them. He also has an _old_ CD player with a built-in radio and hissy speakers. His mom bought it for him when he was ten and it's a little battered and there are some stickers from a comic-book that are mostly worn away but it works and, most importantly, it runs on magic. There's a small port at the back that you can just channel magic into and a cantrip will run it for hours.

Adam has a CD walkman that he brings to school but it uses batteries and Adam doesn't have any spares. Besides, Kris said that he stayed in the tower mostly so he'd probably be happy with the big bulky one. Adam adds more mix CDs and a Michael Jackson CD to offset his guilty conscience. Then he wraps it up in patchy towels and, like, six of the shirts his mom said he'd outgrown and Neil didn't want. Neil is a weird alien and he has no taste in clothes. Adam looks down at the t-shirt with the mostly-intact silver pattern and thinks that Kris would appreciate some colour too.

He winds up using too many of the shirts and the bundle won't fit into the bag any more so Adam has to un-bundle it and stuff the t-shirts in around it. The bag winds up looking like a sack of potatoes but the CD player is safely packed in. Adam writes 'FRAGILE' on the side of it with a Sharpie that starts to run out of ink halfway through the 'G'. Then Adam turns to the lavender paper.

The only letters that Adam has ever written were thank you notes for presents. He looks over Kris' letter and yeah, surely he can do that?

"Dear Kris (and Dracae!),

Of course I remember you, both of you. I'm really glad to hear that you made it to LA okay. Is the Palace super glamorous? I've only ever seen pictures but it looks fabulous! It's awesome that they're letting you have your own tower though. It's like Rapunzel, only I think Dracae would totally bite anyone who tried to lock you up and she's fierce so I think she'd win and burn down the tower too. I'm not saying she should burn down the tower! Just that she totally would if you were being held prisoner by a witch.

Training sounds super boring but maybe you just need to catch up on the basics of magic? You said you never learned about magic in school so maybe it's just to help you catch up? The library sounds cool, you'll have to tell me what kind of books they're letting you read and if there's any of the banned books.

It kinda sucks that you can't train with the other riders but I don't think there are any dragons in the world like Dracae so maybe it's a good idea to start her off with just the two of you? I know Archibald said something about it but I don't remember what. Does he come visit? He's a rider, isn't he?

I'm trying to send you a present but it's night-time and I'm not sure that it's going to work so I'm really sorry if it doesn't work and you're not to get mad at me. I'm not going to tell you what it is so you won't be disappointed.

There's nothing much happening outside of school around here so you're not missing anything. And if you're into sports, you're going to have to tell me and tell me where I can find the scores because I know where the sports section is the in the paper and that's it. 

It's getting kinda late, so I'm going to leave it there.

Love,   
Adam."

He puts it in an envelope that doesn't match and writes 'KRIS (& Dracae), Dragon Palace, LA' on it. He should have looked up the zip code but he's just going to have to trust that the fairies know what they're doing. He tapes up the top of the tote bag - which uses up most of the roll and he nearly forgets to leave a piece to tape on the letter. It looks like a mummy tote bag by the time he's done and Adam leaves like four Reese's Pieces out in a totally not subtle bribe. By the time it's all done, Adam is yawning and the sky is a slight brighter shade of grey that might be blue soon.

Adam rolls himself up in his blankets and closes his eyes. He's never going to get back to sl-

His alarm goes off like a plane taking off beside his head and Adam falls out of bed. His mom comes to shout at him to get out of bed and Adam's morning starts off pretty shitty right from the beginning. He's late for everything which sucks enough on its own but it all adds up so he's five minutes late to his first class but ten minutes late to his last one. He gets a detention and misses the weekly choir practice. It's the sort of day that makes him regret ever crawling out of bed and Adam comes home in a foul mood.

The mummy-tote parcel is gone and there's a new envelope propped against the stack of CDs that Adam hadn't been able to fit into the bag. Adam's name is drawn in big letters that sparkle under the overhead lights in rainbow colours. Kris' letter is mostly scribbles and exclamation points and the paper is covered in what are probably Dracae's footprints. There might be swearing of life-debt or something; Kris really, really liked the presents or so Adam thinks. It's hard to read between the footprints. Adam tries to figure out what she was doing, twisting his hand into position and it kinda looks like she might have been dancing.

He writes back, including all the CDs that didn't make the cut. He doesn't have any more tote bags so he wraps it up in all the scraps of wrapping paper that he can find. It kinda works, Adam thinks and anyway, Kris needs to be weaned off plaid and some of the pink paper is really pretty. Adam leaves another Reese's Piece on top of it because, even if it's not a tote bag there are a lot of CDs so it's a pretty big package.

Kris' letters are the only thing in Adam's life that he doesn't hate for a long time. Kris writes as often as he can, usually daily and Adam writes back. Without Kris being right there, Adam forgets that he's only ten and he doesn't always filter what he says. Kris knows his mom and Neil, but he doesn't know anything about how Adam's dad wants him to be a 'proper' Wizard or how his mom wants him to normal and he's on Adam's side by default. Kris can't really offer advice but he's got a knack for asking the right question at just the right time to make Adam see everything differently.

Kris is the first person that Adam comes out to. 

They've known each other nearly a year by then and Adam has a picture of him and Dracae in a frame on his desk. (He doesn't know if Kris kept the photo that Adam sent back but he likes to think he did.) Adam's spent most of the school year in the library, researching magic and dragons and somehow that becomes a whole afternoon of reading books about sexuality and gender identity. Adam spends half the week wondering and on Monday, he finally settles on being a boy who likes make-up and fashion and who wants to date boys and possibly fuck boys.

Even in his head, that last thought seems outrageous and scandalous. It doesn't make it any less true and Adam freaks out. He spends the rest of the week trying to find the right words, failing and spinelessly leaving it out. Kris' letter comes on Thursday morning, just after dawn during the second week of Adam being back at school after Halloween. 

"You've been kind of weird in your last few letters," there's a blob of ink where Kris' pen must have been resting while he thought of what to say next. Kris is careful with his words, always tries to say the right thing at the right time and Adam likes that about him. "Is something wrong? You haven't mentioned your dad trying to talk to you and the guy in your Physics class is still a jerk but you shouldn't let that bother you. ~~I~~ Dracae thinks you might want to give up your egg and that you don't want to tell us," another ink blob. "We're still your friends, no matter what you decide, okay?" 

Adam feels like a jerk for about an hour and he writes and throws away six different drafts before he finally has a letter that doesn't sound too defensive or too desperate. Adam writes that last letter with his egg in his lap, humming encouragement.

"Kris,

You're right. I have been working out some stuff in my head and I don't know how to explain it but you're right. You and Dracae are my friends and I should tell you. 

I'm gay. I think I've always been gay, I think that's how it works but I only just figured it out.

So, there - my big secret. I've been freaking out about how to tell my parents and Neil and how much school is going to suck when the rest of my class find out. Sorry.

Adam."

What he doesn't write because he can't even admit it in his head is "I've been freaking about how you'll hate me and stop writing and when my egg hatches, we'll be in the same place and it will be sour and hateful and I'll hate it because you're probably my best friend now and I don't want to lose that but I can't lie to you either."

Kris doesn't write back that night and when Adam wakes up the next morning, there's still no letter. He goes to school with his heart in his belly and he doesn't hear one word of anything that's said to him. When he gets home, his mom and dad are arguing and there's something bright and glittery zipping around the house, leaving a trail of glitter in its wake. Neil is watching some kid's show and he doesn't look at Adam as he comes in.

"Someone sent you something," Neil says when their mom pauses for breath and he only has to compete with the bleached blond actor on the screen. "Probably Kris."

He sounds a little off and Adam pauses. He's never talked about Kris with Neil, partly because Kris is at least as mature as most of Adam's peers but yeah, Kris was Neil's friend first.

"Oh?" Adam says eventually for want of something better to say.

"He sent me a postcard," Neil doesn't look away from the show but he smiles a little. "You should probably catch that thing before Mom and Dad stop arguing and just blast it."

"Oh, okay," Adam watches the special delivery zip past. "You don't have a net handy, I suppose?"

"Sorry," Neil actually turns his head to beam at him. "Time to break out those 'magic' skills that everyone's been raving about."

"Ha-fucking-ha," Adam snorts but he does feel a little better and when he goes up the stairs, the sparkling thing - it looks like a dragonfly, maybe? - flashes past and it's circling his bed by the time he gets to his room, out of breath and swearing that this time, he's going to start working out. 

He still hasn't come up with any actual ideas about how to catch the damn thing but as soon as he closes the door, it settles down on the edge of his desk and goes...solid, for want of a better word. English really doesn't have the right words to describe magic which really sucks sometimes. The thing - it is a dragonfly but big and silver-crystal - stops being made out of magic and starts being made out of crystal-stuff instead.

"Huh," Adam says. That's convenient. He stays by the door because not all of the glitter was the now-crystal dragonfly. There was a letter - well, a scroll of the heavy paper that Kris uses but that is totally going to be a letter - under it. Adam stares at it for, seriously, ten minutes before he works up the courage to cross over to the desk and tugs the scroll out. It's covered in Kris' hand writing but the first thing that Adam sees as it unrolls is the big glittery heart at the bottom.

"Hey,

So, um, first - I am so sorry I didn't write back yesterday but ...you are going to laugh at me so hard for this but I had to find a book that explained what 'gay' was. The library ghost had to help me - she actually manifested and everything - because I'm still too young which is stupid. We did find the book in the end and it was all about being gay. Pastor Bobby never called it that and honestly, I don't think he knew that much about it because what I read isn't anything like what he used to preach but Dracae is sure that he did mean gay people so I understand why you didn't want to tell me. 

I don't care ~~th~~ I mean, I do care, obviously, because it's you and it's important to you but it doesn't change anything. You're still Dracae's favourite non-me person and we're both still really looking forward to your Draco finally getting his tail in gear so you can come out here. You're still Adam and that's the really important bit.

Also, it's kinda cool that you told us first but I think (and Dracae actually agrees with me) that you should tell your family. They really love you and they deserve to know. The library ghost says you should because you might regret not telling them but she also says that I should tell you not to do anything you aren't comfortable with. (She's really old so she actually said in like Shakespeare-language but I figure you'd rather I translated.) 

And I think I've got the hang of sending packages without using the fairies so I sent you a present. It's not very good and Ms Archon would be disappointed at me if she knew I'd sent it but you sounded kinda sad in your letter so, um, happy telling-people-you're-gay day?

I will totally understand if you don't get to write back until after the weekend but, I swear, I didn't mean to leave the answer so late. Remember no matter what, we still like you just the way you are.

Kris (& Dracae)"

Adam looks over at the dragonfly because his mind is just crammed full of confusing, giddy feelings. It's very pretty, he thinks, and maybe if he puts it in the sunlight he might get rainbows. Adam pokes it and the dragonfly shimmers. Adam jumps back. The shimmer spreads out over the whole dragonfly so it looks like it's breathing. Then it starts to sing 'It's Raining Men' a cappella and Adam's jaw drops. He recognizes what he thinks is probably Kris' voice, some-one softer and rougher and the wordless trill that has to be Dracae.

"Oh my fucking god," Adam claps his hands over his mouth and starts to laugh hysterically. His egg picks up the melody and Adam is laughing so hard that there are actual tears in his eyes. "You marvelous little _asshole_." 

He tells his whole family over the weekend because he's not brave enough to do it over dinner. His mom cries and hugs him and tells him fiercely that she loves him and she's proud of him. His dad is gruff and hugs him and says something about the weather that really means pretty much what his mom said too. Neil, dorkus maximus that he is, just looks at Adam and says "Well, yeah. And in other startling news, the sky is blue."

The ensuing scuffle breaks one of his mom's ornaments and they both get yelled at but it's worth it for the way he and Neil smirk at each other conspiratorially, and Adam's mom is still all teary about Adam's big confession so they don't even get in trouble really.

When Adam goes into school on Monday, everything feels different but really, Adam's the only thing that's changed. It's like something has settled and Adam knows a little bit more about who he is than he did and that's surprisingly awesome. He stops letting people get so far under his skin because most of the guys and girls that Adam thought were grade-A assholes are just stupid or scared kids. (Some of them are still just assholes but Adam doesn't care what they think of him.)

Adam isn't the only one who notices the change; his teachers talk about him 'growing up' and 'maturing'. Adam smiles at them and spends the little free time he can manage between school, music and magic looking up the gay rock stars. There are a lot of gay rock stars and most of Adam's letters to Kris for the rest of the year are about his discoveries. 

That holiday season, Kris sends him Hanukkah presents instead of a Christmas present. He's been learning teleportation so Adam's present appears at bedtime every night. It's mostly small stuff - Kris gets pocket money but he won't start being paid until he's actually trained - but it's all stuff that Adam loves. A set of earrings (Adam was clearly not as subtle about his plans for his birthday as he thought he was): three different sets of make-up: a t-shirt with a fierce dragon silhouette in silver: a whole box of nail polish and a carefully written instruction set on how to use magic to put them on properly in under ten seconds and lastly, a simple friendship bracelet in rainbow colors wrapped around a fat, leather-bound notebook. Kris says that the notebook is part of a _Gemina Librorum_ spell and it will make writing to each other easier once the spell kicks in during the next full moon.

Adam spends a whole month worrying about what to get Kris and winds up spending far too much. But the second he sees the guitar in the shop where he buys his sheet music, he knows Kris has to have it. Since Kris is tragically not here to realize this, clearly Adam has to get it to him. It's fate! Logic says that the guitar is probably too big for Kris and Adam can't afford the case too but Kris hasn't been allowed a guitar and he really wants one. Adam can tell. So he brings it back home in a garbage sack and his mom looks at him.

"You don't play the guitar, Adam," she points out reasonably. "You said you didn't want to learn any instruments."

"It's for Kris," Adam says stubbornly. "They aren't giving him a guitar and they still won't let him have music unless I send it to him."

"Okay," his mom pauses for a second. "They might not have time to get him music, Adam. There's a lot going on right now and music isn't essential, your opinions to the contrary."

"So I got him one," Adam points out, focusing on the important thing. "And I need your help to send it to him. Can you get me some bubble wrap?"

His mom looks dubiously at the guitar. "Are you sure-?"

"Yes!" Adam snaps. "Mom, it's-it's _music_! He studies really hard and he never asks for anything and they still won't give him this one thing!" 

"Okay, honey," his mom says in that calm tone that means she's going to handle it. "Just leave it to me."

His mom? Rocks. She buys a proper case and extra strings and even a how-to-play guide and a card with a robin on it that she makes his dad and Neil sign too and when Adam's finished sealing the envelope, every fairy from their rose bushes is hovering impatiently over the wrapped case.

"Not until he's asleep," Adam reminds them for the millionth time, smiling like a dork. The fairies fill the air with chiming and Adam tapes the card to the case. There are a lot of fairies which is a little weird but Adam figures his mom's behind that. They swarm around the guitar-parcel and disappear. Adam watches them go with a smile. This is going to be the best Christmas ever!

The day after Christmas, Adam's Grandpa has a heart attack or something. Adam doesn't understand the Latin phrases getting thrown around but he gets the idea after the first fifteen minutes sitting numbly in a sterile waiting room with harsh fluorescent lights. It's not going to be good news. His mom doesn't cry but she breathes in big gusty gulps that aren't much more than sobs.

They go in to say goodbye. Adam doesn't recognize the man in the bed; his face is slack and all the angry horizontal lines that Adam remembers are almost invisible. The ventilator rattles and hisses and the heart-monitor beeps but there's no other sound. The whole room is pale blue and there's nothing to look at but the stranger that is his Grandpa. He looks a lot like Neil actually, which makes the five minutes Adam spends standing at his bedside all kinds of surreal. He's never seen Grandpa like this and he thinks that maybe now he can see how his Mom and his Grandma could have loved him. Grandpa doesn't open his eyes the whole time Adam's there and he knows that he's not going to.

He goes back outside to hug his dad and cry. His mom is brittle and grey and she blinks a lot. Even when Adam's standing right there, it's like she's a million miles away and even his dad can't reach her. Adam's not sure how hard he tries. Adam mostly curls up in the corner and stares into middle distance.

It might be hours, it might be days but eventually, when the white waiting room turns to grey, the beeping from Grandpa's room stutters and trails into a shrill whine. There are people in scrubs and bustle and noise but the part that sticks in Adam's mind, the bit that he remembers later, is how his mom started to scream.

The funeral is mostly a blur. Adam brings his egg, tucked into a canvas bag that was meant to hold a wallet or a phone or something and sleep-walks through the whole thing. He remembers that there were people - a lot more people than he'd expected - and that the weather had been almost summer-perfect. Adam doesn't listen to the eulogies or to the talk at the funeral. 

Adam won't know for years yet, but this is where it starts. This is the first casualty though his Grandpa won't be the last.

Adam gets drunk that night for the first time and gets his first hangover the next morning because no-one told him that he needed to be drinking water too. The whole house smells of cold meats and salad sauces; funeral foods and Adam throws up for a half an hour and stays in the shower until the hot water runs out.

He has a stack of letters from Kris on his desk, all of them un-opened and Adam looks at them then turns away. He cleans up his room which takes an hour and leaves him with nothing to do. The house wards are smotheringly tight so Adam can't even practice his spell work. All he can do is sit and listen to music and think.

Another letter arrives sometime in the afternoon, this one with a package attached and Adam gives in. Kris's writing is crooked and rushed together and Adam has to read it three times because Kris has left out words and he's rambling. Kris does that a lot and normally, Adam thinks it's cute. He's not really in the mood for puzzles right now so he slaps it down and goes downstairs to load the dishwasher.

"Adam," his dad is standing in the living room, looking a little lost. He's holding the phone and blinking a lot. "Could you run to the store for me?" 

"Sure," Adam grabs the canvas bags. It'll take about an hour to walk to the store and he'll be sweaty and gross but right now, he doesn't care.

"Take the car," his dad says and tosses him the keys. Adam stares. He's had his learner's permit for like, a _week_ and he stalls the car every few times. "It'll be quicker."

"Uh, sure," It will help, Adam thinks, because freaking out about plowing his dad's car into a tree or a mailbox is going to be a serious distraction. Plus, driving! Adam's mom doesn't like him driving alone. "You got a list?" 

Adam doesn't actually read the list until he's in the store. There are a lot of people in all the aisles and Adam's a little surprised. It's not even two o'clock and there's a line at every register. There aren't any newspapers left and all the serious waiting-room magazines were gone too. 

Adam shrugs and grabs a cart. His dad's handwriting is about as easy to read as Egyptian Old Kingdom Hieroglyphs and Adam wastes a whole hour tramping around and trying to figure out what his dad really wanted. His feet hurt, his back hurts and Adam's going to scream at the next thoughtless dumbass who decides that the best place to stop is right in the middle of the aisle but it's done, finally, and Adam goes home.

Neil is sitting on the front step and he looks up as Adam puts the car in park. Adam looks at his expression and closes his hand around the car keys. Neil helps him bring in the groceries and they finish unpacking just in time for his mom to come out of the living room. She's pale and her lips are thin lines.

"Boys, could you come join us?"

His dad is sitting on the sofa and his mom takes a seat beside him. They're not touching and they only look at each other after Adam and Neil have taken their seats on the arms of the armchair facing them. Adam's stomach sinks deeper as his dad takes a deep breath.

"Guys, this isn't easy but you know that your mom and I have been having ...problems?"

Adam elbows Neil when he goes to open his mouth and his dad clears his throat and looks at his mom.

"We're separating," his mom says and it feels like the whole world crashing to a halt. His dad looks pale but he's nodding. "I know that this is going to be confusing and a little scary but we want you to know that we still love you both very much and that is never going to change, okay?"

His dad is nodding and Adam thinks bitterly that it's the most united front his parents have managed. He folds his arms and slouches down in the armchair and refuses to engage with the whole mess. If he can't change things, he'll be damned if he's going to participate. Adam's mom talks some more about how this has been coming a long time and they still care for each other and so on and on and on. She's channeling the worst kinda Dr Phil bullshit and Adam hates her right then.

When the conversation finally sputters to a pathetic end, Adam storms back upstairs. He puts on the loudest music he can - the KISS album that Neil bought him a few years ago and turns the volume all the way up. He doesn't sing along - he screams. He doesn't have the fine breath control or the practice to be really loud but he tries his hardest.

He finally runs out of breath, with the last minute of the tape still playing and Adam doesn't catch his breath until the play button clicks as the tape ends. His throat feels like it's been sandblasted and his voice cracks like cheap plastic. Adam swallows. It's only then that he starts to cry. 

He hates crying. Hates it worse than Wal*Mart jeans with the seams like sandpaper because Adam does not have the complexion to cry and look anything but blotchy and red and his nose swells up and it takes hours for the swollen skin around his eyes to go back to normal. Adam can't help himself this time, with all the anger and the frustration spent, he cries like a baby until he passes out.

There is a fresh stack of letters on his desk when he wakes up and even dealing with Kris' increasingly hysterical letters has to be better than going down to talk to his mom, dad or brother. Adam settles back against his headboard and counts the unopened letters. Fifty-six envelopes, fourteen postcards and what might have been another two letters underneath the scorch marks. Adam mentally counts up the days. 

It's been just over a week. Kris normally sends him a letter every two days. He must have been really worried. Adam doesn't smile but he feels a tiny bit better and the big hurting cramp in his chest unclenches. Someone cares that Adam is being sullen and silent. 

He starts with the oldest letters first. The first three are just normal letters - Kris sounds determinedly normal and he talks about his lessons and the songs he's learning on his guitar - but there are scribbled P.S.'s asking Adam to write back soon and hoping that everything is okay. 

The fourth letter is just three lines: "Please tell me you're okay. I'm worried. Please be okay?" 

The fifth to the thirtieth letters are written on a whole assortment of pages. One looked like the foil paper from a candy bar, some of the others are on the back of pages torn out of what look to be spell books and there's even one written on the inside of an envelope. They all say pretty much the same thing. _I'm worried about you. Please tell me you're okay._

The twenty letters after that don't have any of Kris' writing on them. They're printed pages, cramped and clumsily lettered. Each envelope has about twenty-five pages and Adam stares at them, momentarily distracted from his gloom by honest bewilderment. There are five hundred pages here, all with the same typeface and in the same language. At first, Adam thinks they're written in English but he catches the letters wavering in the corner of his eye and realizes they're not. The pages - the _book_ \- is translating itself for him which means that it's magic. It's a spell book.

All the pages line up and stacked together, they're about as thick as one of his mom's books. Adam stares at the stack and then at the envelopes it was sent in. The address is in Kris' handwriting: "Adam Lambert, San Diego, Summerlands" but there's no note, nothing to explain why Kris chopped up a spell book and sent it to Adam. When Adam opens the parcel that came that morning he finds that there are really two parcels; one is a bundle of neatly labeled components for a magical music player which is fine, Adam and Kris have been refining the design that Kris found in one of his books and these are the rare or expensive parts that Adam can't get himself. It's his birthday present, Adam realizes with a faint pang of surprise. The second parcel has all the signs of Kris wrapping it - sloppy corners and too much tape - but it's just a binder in heavy black leather that feels warm to the touch. It's a weird size for a binder and the clasps are heavy bronze.

It's just the right size to fit the pages of the book, Adam realizes and he puts one of the bundles in to check. They don't bind to the spine and there isn't any way to keep them in place. Adam knows a few binding spells for repairing old books but he's wary about using magic on the pages of a spell book.

"What the hell?" Adam leafs through the disassembled book, looking for some clue. A few words catch his attention.

'A guide to the most effacious use of the Powerf MagicKal' 

Adam reads the rest of the page more carefully and he's wrong and right, all at once. This isn't a book of spells. This is a book about magic and how to make it do anything you want it to. There isn't much detail and it's all in ye olde English but Adam is fascinated.

He tears himself away with an effort. Adam'll have plenty of time to look at his new book later but right now, he wants to know why Kris sent it to him. The next five letters are disappointing. It's just the same old boring stuff that Kris always writes. Well, okay, not boring - Kris has started his pyromancy training and accidentally set his bed on fire practicing and Dracae accidentally tied herself in a knot during advanced aerial tactical training - but it's all the sort of stuff that Kris writes about every day.

The sixth - well, Adam's just glad he wasn't eating or drinking anything when he reads the sixth. It starts in the middle of the page, no 'Dear Adam (&Draco)' or anything like that.

"I'm not pregnant! I can't get pregnant! Hurray! 

I had to wait for Lyon, she's the other Dracae rider that I told you about, to come to the Tower so I could ask her. But she did and I did and she says I'm not going to get pregnant! I had to ask because she gets pregnant every time her Dracae does but she says that's ~~ser~~ ~~surrp~~ ~~serendipppy~~ because she happened to be a girl. She says sex with boys can't make a boy get pregnant unless you're Fae so since I'm human, I'm not going to be pregnant!"

Okay, that needed a lot more context. Adam read the rest of the letter and then read it all again. There was no way Kris meant what Adam thought he meant but even on a third reading, Adam couldn't see any other way to take it. Dragonriders had to have sex when their dragons did? Adam had read some books that talked about stuff like that but books - especially books read for an English essay - weren't supposed to be real. 

Adam works through the rest of the letters by about midnight. Kris never explains the spell book and Adam's only working on his gut instinct but he thinks that if Kris could have explained he would have. So Adam can't even ask why Kris sent him a sliced up spell book and he's frustrated enough to be angry for a while but this is Kris and Adam doesn't believe Kris would have sent him a puzzle like this if he didn't think Adam needed to have it.

Adam sneaks downstairs for a snack to help him think. Adam liked puzzles in theory but his patience kinda sabotages him every time he tries to work out a puzzle the way he's supposed to, he gets frustrated and goes looking for a quick answer. He's going to have to do so much work to figure this one out and he brings up a whole packet of Oreos. He's going to need fuel and fuck what it's going to do to his diet.

Back in his room, Adam looks at the spell book again and grabs his notepad instead. He writes a long, rambling letter to Kris, telling him about his grandfather and about how his parents are breaking up and by the time he signs off, there are six pages filled front and back with his scribbly writing and Adam is drained. He does feel a little better but the cookies have soured his stomach and Adam can't keep his eyes open.

He sleeps through his alarm and he's late for school but it's not like he misses much. Most of Adam's peers are getting advice about college applications and apprenticeships. This isn't new; Adam's been vaguely aware of the whole circus but he hasn't been part of it. His egg - carried to and from class in its small padded bag - sets him apart from even the idea of a normal life and it's one of the big unspoken assumptions that Adam is just going to trot off to join Kris and the rest of the riders in training when his egg hatches.

Last year that was something Adam preened over - being special and unique because only two eggs had been given out in the whole of the Summerlands over the last ten years - but as he crowds himself into his chair, Adam tries to imagine another year or ten years more of school. Kris has said that training is like school 'but for hours and hours and after dinner and before breakfast' and Adam is outgrowing school already. He doesn't want to spend the whole of his life struggling through what other people think he should know.

He doesn't like being home where the tension is ever-present and it feels like everyone is just counting hours until his dad moves out and his parents sign the papers that are going to break their family apart for good. Neil's never home if he can help it; he goes to all the rehearsals of Adam's plays and hangs out in the back of the auditorium being a little dork. Adam throws himself into rehearsals and joins the rest of the theatre misfits at the IHoP until it's late and Danielle, who is the only one with a car, has to drive them all home.

Adam eats rubbery pancakes with artificial sweet and sticky syrup and learns to talk to people. True, most of them are (or want to be) actors and poets and musicians and all of them are wildly ambitious, already planning how they're going to change the world. Adam learns how to pace his words, how to keep the conversation from spinning into infinite bland rings and how to say 'no' and challenge people when they get things wrong. He carves out a little space where he doesn't have to be anything but himself and slowly, over the days as the school year runs out, Adam gets to be that little bit more comfortable in his own skin.

It's the strangest feeling; Adam has been awkward and '...different' for his whole life. He thought it was his egg, that he was something different because he was or rather was going to be a rider. Giggling over the latest over-emotional pop trash with Danielle, talking fashion with Madison and bonding over studs and spikes; Adam finds out that he's not so different. Kris isn't the only person Adam has real, important things in common with.

Because he's still Adam and he can screw up, Adam's angry about that for a long time. It's a relief to have people like him but a part of Adam that's larger than is comfortable resents it. He's not special. He's not unique. 

"It's really, really childish and I know that," Adam writes to Kris. He's started using Kris as his sounding board as his parents finalize the last of their divorce proceedings. He doesn't know how to talk to his dad about this kind of thing and he can't go to his mom unless he goes to his dad too because that would be unfair. "But I don't know how to stop thinking it. I used to be this really special, important person and now I'm not."

Kris' reply is just so typical of him. "You are a really special and important person. That hasn't changed. You're just starting to realize that everyone else is special and important in their own ways too."

Kris' letters have been subtly different since he sent the spell book and as Adam crawls back out of his thunderous sulk, he starts to notice. Kris has always sounded very mature for a kid but there are times now, when Adam thinks that Kris sounds like he's all grown up. Adam asks after his curiosity spends a week chewing on his brain. He still won't ask about the spell book but two unanswered questions feels like too many secrets to keep between them,

"I'm getting close to being finished," Kris writes back. "With my training I mean. Dracae's gotten really big and apparently that's a sign that my mind is 'sufficiently expanded'? There's a lot of adults here - the only other kid isn't even training here anymore so I only really talk to adults. And you." There's a blobby smiling face drawn in the margin beside that. "I think that's probably most of it and all the books here are about being a better person and a loyal rider."

"Still doesn't seem fair," Adam complains. "I only have a few years to be all older and mature and shit. You are robbing me off my chance to be your mentor."

Kris' next letter is addressed to 'The Venerable & Most Mature Mentor of Mastery, Mstr. A. M. Lambert Esq.' and Adam giggles like a fiend. Neil pokes his head around the door.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "You sound like you're choking or something?" 

"I have the most evil and adorable penpal in the world," Adam manages, waving his letter at Neil who snags it out of his hand and reads the address on the envelope with his brows drawn down. They shoot up as Neil reads and Neil starts to laugh. They end up laughing for the next half an hour because every time Adam tries to catch his breath, Neil will snort or sputter and Adam will start laughing all over again.

"You should use my Yoda stationary to write him back," Neil insists afterwards. They are both sprawled out on Adam's bed, still giggling in sporadic hiccups. "And write in Yoda's voice, you should."

Adam imagines Kris' face and laughs so hard that his ribs ache and his eyes water and he writes Kris a disjointed letter on the Yoda stationary in his best attempt at Yoda-esque notation. He's never been a Star Wars fan - who cares about stupid Jedi when you could watch documentaries about Wizards who could do even cooler things for _real_? - but Neil and his dad both love it so Adam has suffered through frequent re-watches often enough that he can recite whole chunks of the script. 

He can't remember when the last time he saw Neil and his Dad get out the battered tapes so after Neil finds the stationary for him, Adam insists he needs to do 'research' on Yoda's speech patterns. Neil rolls his eyes but he goes to find the tapes and Adam fills a bowl with the last of the microwave popcorn. They watch all three films back to back and Adam reads part of the letter out in his best imitation of Yoda's wheezy voice afterwards. Neil laughs harder than Adam's seen him laugh since before the holidays and makes vicious editorial remarks that Adam refuses to admit are painfully accurate.

They go to bed and Adam sleeps easily and wakes up for his alarm the next morning. Neil quotes half the first film back at him until Adam starts answering in self-defense. Their mom watches them, half-puzzled but relieved and smiles at them. Adam goes to school feeling like he's accomplished something. His egg sings a triumphant march all the way to the school and Adam doesn't even break a sweat at the pop test in Algebra during second period.

They're learning cantrips in Magic - the basic little spells that any human can master that make life easier like the Find-Me spell that Adam's mom uses to keep track of her keys and purse. It's supposed to be this big rite of passage once you pass sixteen but Adam's mom has been teaching him these spells since he was a kid so it's the easiest class Adam takes because he can sit there and think about stuff while Ms Thomplinson teaches the mouth-breathers in the back row how to make stains vanish without disintegrating their shirts. (It's not like fashion is going to mourn the loss of polyester-cotton shirts but whatever, birds have to fly and teachers have to teach, Adam's not judging.)

He has the spell book/binder in his bag and he's thinking of trying to read it while Ms Thomplinson ignores him. Then he actually gets inside the classroom and feels rather than hears the low rumble of discomfort from his egg. Ms Thomplinson is standing in front of her desk and smiling too-brightly with her hands tightly folded in front of her stomach and she licks her lips constantly. Adam can see the halo of her lip-gloss around the edges of her mouth but most of it has been licked away. Normally, Ms Thomplinson stays sitting behind her desk until the practical part of the class starts. Today, she's standing straight like one of the student teachers who do a few weeks of trial-by-fire work experience. 

"Good morning, guys," she trills and now Adam's not the only one with his arms folded tight across his chest or frowning up at her. The whole class has lost the post-lunch buzz and they're getting tensed up as Ms Thomplinson smiles at them like an air steward on a falling plane. "We're going to be taking a break from the lesson plan today. Isn't that exciting?"

Sure, Adam thinks, like watching a whale decide that it really wants to be an astronaut. Ms Thomplinson has her picture under O.C.D. in the dictionary. Every single Magic class they have is carefully planned and timed because Ms Thomplinson believes that understanding and order are the key to controlling your magic. She might even be right but Adam's never once attended one of her classes that hasn't been exactly what she told them it was going to be.

"What are we doing then, Miss?" Danielle raises her hand to ask.

"Some very simple spells," Ms Thomplinson's smile doesn't change. "Very straightforward spells. Everybody pick a partner and put your books in your bags so we can get started."

Again, Adam isn't the only one that blinks. Magic isn't the sort of class you have partners or groups in because co-operative magic isn't possible. "Magic is an animate force derived from the essential vitality of an individual living creature," Adam's school book says, right on the first page. "Therefore, every individual's magical capability is unique, unmixable and private." 

It's not the whole truth but Adam's probably the only student in the class who knows that. Fae Sorcerers cast spells in great circles of nearly three thousand during the Fae war that set monsters loose all over the world. Unicorns and centaurs use the magic of their entire herd to keep themselves safe but that's only true of magic races. Most of modern magic is based on workarounds to that rule. Wizards can cast interlocking spells that build on each other and overlap but two Wizards cannot cast the same spell. Magic cannot be combined by human Wizards, spells or rituals. In fact the only human Wizards who cast combined spells are the dragonriders, Adam has learned from Kris' letters, and even they can't do it without the assistance of their dragons. 

"Come on," Ms Tomplinson says with forced cheer. "Chop, chop. Let's get started!" 

Adam turns to look for a partner and Danielle drops her bag on the other side of the table, taking the seat beside him as the rest of the class slowly shakes itself out into neatly paired teams. There are one or two whispered arguments and a few negotiations while Ms Thomplinson tries to hurry things up and watches the clock out of the corner of her eye.

"What's with Miz T?" Danielle asks as Ms Thomplinson tries to hand out instruction sheets. Her hands are shaking and she has to get Cassie to hand the pages out instead. She's openly watching the clock now because the whole class is quiet. Even the assholes who can't keep their mouths shut for five minutes during roll call are sitting hunched up and silent. Adam looks down at the instruction sheet.

The heading at the top of the first page says simply 'Defensive, Protective and Healing Cantrips' in a typewritten, oddly spaced font. The pages are photo-copies and Adam looks up at Ms Thomplinson as the school clock clicks over to twelve. In the hush of the classroom, everyone hears the distant clang of the Tower bell. Ms Thomplinson puts her head in her hands.

Adam counts; the bell tolls thirteen times before it goes silent. Danielle grabs his arm, fingers digging in as she goes pale. Adam is breathing in shallow gulps of air. The Tower bell is meant as a warning; used to call people to the Tower for protection. Thirteen strokes meant magic, threat and-

"Class," Ms Thomplinson sways as she stands up. "It is my duty to inform you that as of ten o'clock this morning, the American Summerlands are at war with the Twilight Court."


	4. Chapter 4

  


School is cancelled for the rest of the day. The principal comes on the intercom to announce that students who have parents in service to the local Wizards will be staying in the school until their parents can come to collect them. Everyone else is to pack up and be ready to go home. The teachers are told to keep the classes together and everyone is told to keep calm.

Adam remembers leaving, going down the street to the middle school where Neil is. He doesn't remember how he finds Neil, just that he does and they stay together. Some of the smaller kids are crying, mostly sniffles and whimpers but there's a girl who screams for twenty minutes. The teachers try to calm her down. There are more and more kids milling around. Adam's egg chimes as he tries to push through the crowds and it takes him a few minutes to work out that it's playing 'hot and cold' with him.

He finds Neil in the library because yes, even now, Neil is that kind of dork. He's quiet and pale and he tries to crack a joke and it flops so badly that Adam is embarrassed for him. There are a few of Neil's friends around but they're all so quiet that Adam barely notices them. Neil's still small enough to fit under Adam's arm and they sit out by the front steps with the other kids. 

It's a cloudy day but it's warm with the promise of summer. There's just enough wind to ruffle the flag hanging from the flagpole beside them. Adam looks up at it as the cord rattles against the flagpole and the first big yellow bus pulls up by the sidewalk.

It's the last day of Adam's childhood.

When he and Neil get home, their dad is already gone. Every Wizard has been called up for military service and Adam's mom tells them that every adult with magical ability has been conscripted to fill the gap. 

"He left you letters," she says, holding out two envelopes. It's her stationary, the one with the silver trim and the fussy knotwork in the corner, but it's his dad's handwriting. They each take their envelope and, after a brief glance at each other, go their separate ways to read in private.

Adam's letter is less than half a page long and his dad's writing is untidy. "I don't know exactly where they're going to send me yet. I'll write as soon as I get there but you shouldn't worry. I'm not joining the military so I won't be in danger. I need you to step up and help your mom, okay? Things are going to be tough for a while but I know you can handle it. Take care of your mom and Neil for me. Love, Dad."

Adam folds the letter and puts it back into the envelope. Then he sits on his bed for a bit and just breathes. He can hear the TV downstairs. There's a lot of excited talk and Adam needs to get up and do research but right now, he just wants a minute.

  


He doesn't think of Kris until dinner, when they're all poking meatloaf around their plates. His mom's burned the corners and it probably tastes bad but Adam can't be sure because Adam doesn't eat any of it. The news is still playing in the background, talking about how many Wizards have been called up and confirming which Towers have been entrusted to caretakers 'for the duration of the emergency'. All the Towers that Adam recognizes from that list are inside the boundaries. None of the border Towers have been handed off. That's significant, Adam thinks.

What the news anchors don't talk about, not at all, is who the Twilight Court are. Adam notices but he doesn't think too much of it. The news channels are really bad at magical politics. He'll have to ask Kris to look it u-...

_Kris_! Adam drops his fork into his plate. Kris, who is probably at least qualified as a low-level Wizard by now, is in LA right now. The dragonriders haven't been listed in the recruitment lists but they aren't emergency forces. They're the Summerlands elite magical troops. They can just be sent straight to war.

Kris is only a kid. There's no way they're going to send him off to war. Adam's egg hums unhappily and Adam swallows. Kris is only a kid who was recruited straight into training. Kris is only a kid who has a family who have no idea where he's been for the last two years. Kris is only a kid who has no-one but Adam (and Dracae) to turn to.

Kris is going to _die_.

Adam sits through the rest of dinner because his mom's expression is brittle and she's so tense the whole house is humming with it. She isn't looking directly at the TV but she watches it out of the corner of her eye every time the news cuts away to people gathering around the Towers.

When he finally gets upstairs, Adam finds a letter propped up against his CD player. It's not one of the envelopes that Adam sends for Kris to use - the cheap dollar store kind that Adam sends him - it's thick heavy parchment. Adam's name is written on the outside and when he turns it over there's a red and gold seal about the size of a quarter in the shape of a dragon chewing its own tail. 

Adam breaks open the letter and his hands are shaking. The letter inside is just one page in the big envelope, written in elegant calligraphy and formal language. Oddly enough, there's also gold glitter pooled in the folds of the parchment.

"For the Attention of Adam Mitchell Lambert ( _Draconis Veneficus supponunt_ ),

On behalf of His Grace, Quinton Yahto Ugalde, Archduke of The Dragon Towers of the Los Angeles Summerlands, I greet you and offer you the best will of those that will be your brothers in the sky.

As all now know, the ever-treacherous actions of the Court of Twilight Throne leave the Protectors of the Summerlands with no choice but to make war upon them and all that stand with them. His Grace is aware that your training has not yet commenced and herefore grants you access to archives of the Towers that you might be prepared when your Draco is ready to emerge.

Your _Fratrem_ has completed his training to satisfactory degree and will be sent where there is need. Should there be word, it will be brought to you with all alacrity.

Yours in Fidelity and Courage,  
Armonous Hex."

Well, that's as clear as mud, Adam thinks savagely. He doesn't understand the Latin words but the whole document makes him want to punch something or somebody in the face. Adam rereads the letter three times before he throws it at his desk. The glitter puffs up in a cloud that hangs in the air. Not just hangs in the air, Adam stares at the letters that the glitter spells out. 

"Being sent to war. Be careful. We'll Try to Write. K+D" 

It's Kris' handwriting but two sizes bigger than Adam's used to seeing it. The letters dissolve as Adam reaches out to touch them, leaving the tiniest golden sparkles clinging to his fingertips. The rest of it vanishes out the window and Adam breathes in, shaky and so furious that he doesn't think he's ever going to be calm again.

Eventually, Adam takes the letter back downstairs to show it to his mom. He sits at the kitchen table with his egg carefully set on a dish-towel. Adam's egg is bigger now, big enough that it needs both his hands to hold it. It's starting to smooth out, the irregular patches of texture evening out under Adam's restless fingers.

"Adam," his mom says as she sets the letter down carefully. "This is a big deal."

"No, really?" Adam snaps because he hates the way his mom sometimes acts like Adam's still just a dumb kid who doesn't know better. "I've known this was a big deal since Kris-" and shit, his voice goes high and wobbly on Kris' name. His mom covers his hand with hers and Adam blinks hard. "I've known this was a big deal since Kris' dragon hatched in our fucking living room, mom!" 

"Language," his mom chides him and Adam pulls his hand away. "Adam, I know your dad talked to you about this-"

"I'm not giving up my egg!" Adam snarls and his mom holds up her hands.

"I'm not asking you to," she says and Adam's egg hums, a pure chord that sounds like truth and Adam hunches his shoulders. "I'm just saying. Don't let anyone tell you what you need to be. You're a smart kid, Adam. Don't let people get you worked up enough that you forget that."

Adam doesn't pull away when she covers his hand again. "...I'll remember."

  


Adam's life changes after that. _Everyone's_ life changes after that. The government posters promise 'Life As Normal' but 'normal' doesn't even survive to the end of that first week. Adam had never really noticed how many things depended on magic until they stopped running. The school building was apparently not safe without constant maintenance spells and after the first week, they were sent home with notes for their parents.

"It's not the school building," his mom corrects the next day when she sits them both down to explain. "The wards can't be maintained so it isn't safe. The government is worried that the Twilight Court is going to target children."

"Are they?" Neil asks, looking a little green.

"Not yet," his mom says matter-of-factly. "But that's always been one of the Fae's favourite tactics. They are reporting that the number of changelings is rising and the DMHDC issued alerts for all parents with children under the age of 24. I'm so glad that I stocked up on rock salt. I think there's going to be a rush on it and I can probably trade a bag of it to Mrs Reyes for her casserole recipe."

"You are evil," Adam tells his mom admiringly. "And mercenary."

"What's the DMHDC?" Neil asks because he will always be a word nerd and a dork.

"The Department of Magical Hazards and Danger Control," his mom says. "You probably haven't heard of it before."

"I did," Adam lies and Neil scowls.

"Your grandfather used to work there," his mom only looks a little sad. "It used to be part of the Department of Defense but there was politics and it wound up being a standalone department. It doesn't really do anything unless the Fae start being aggressive."

"What do they actually do?" Neil demands. He mostly directs the question at their mom but he does look pointedly at Adam.

"Identify any threatening behaviour by the Fae," Adam doesn't know where the knowledge comes from, it's just there. "Especially by the Courts."

"Exactly," his mom is pleased, smiling at him with only the barest hint of surprise. Neil glowers at him. "They identify a threat from the Fae then figure out how to negate it and make sure everyone knows what precautions they need to take. It's a public service."

"How do you know they're telling the truth?" Neil's eyes gleam and his mom sighs.

"Of course they are, Neil. Why would they want to lie to us?" 

Adam is mostly on his mom's side. This is America, right? The great idyllic Summerlands of Los Angeles are the closest thing to Paradise on Earth. Everyone knows that and the ideals that the Summerlands were founded on; truth, justice and equality. Okay, stupid France had thought them up first but it was the States and especially the Summerlands that made them a real way of life.

  


The schools are closed and five of the public access channels are devoted to 'educational' programming. Adam's mom volunteers as a host which is so embarrassing that Adam tries really hard to forget that she did. He regrets this when he comes downstairs on Monday morning in his pink elephant pyjamas to find a horde of third graders cluttering up the living room.

Yeah, Adam's never going to live that down.

Neil's lessons are totally covered by the plans his mom makes but Adam's magical lessons already more advanced than his mom is comfortable using, much less teaching. After years and years of practice, Adam's nearly as good as she is with the house-magics and his mom tells him bluntly that she's never had any skill with 'real' magic.

This means that all Adam can do are chores, chores and more chores. His mom lets him listen to music and Adam's voice finally finishes breaking so he doesn't sound ridiculous. He sings along with all the CDs he can find and his lung capacity is pitiful at first but he sticks it out and finds that there's a joy in music that even magic can't compete with.

Plus, if Adam sings then the fairies will come to listen and do his chores for him. Adam thinks about objecting right up to the point where they lift the sofa and zoom the brush underneath. The sofa is huge and Adam's reasonably certain that some of the dust under there is older than he is. By the time Adam's worked through ' _I Want to Break Free_ ' and ' _Friends_ ', the living room is cleaner than it's ever been before.

Adam thinks about it for a week and decides that he's okay with trading music for chores. This doesn't take a week but Adam oversleeps on the Friday and only some judiciously applied Ace of Base gets the house cleaned before his mom gets back from doing the shopping. Adam gets a bag of cookies for a good job and reluctantly hands it over to the fairy bush in the back because he's not a hypocrite and fair's fair.

Mostly, though, Adam spends the week worrying about Kris. The news talks about the dragonriders a lot because yeah, they're the shock troops. A fully-trained dragonrider is at least the equal of any human Wizard plus their dragon which makes them one of the most potent magic users. Even the Fae can't compare to a dragonrider.

Adam listens to every news report but there's frustratingly little detail. There were dragonriders here or dragonriders killed a mob of trolls there or dragonriders assisted an evacuation in this other place, saving so many lives. The only actual footage is dragons flying high over the cameraman's head, usually just tiny bird-like shapes against the blue. Adam doesn't recognize any of the dragons.

"Should I?" he asks his egg one night when he's itching with the need to get up and go and do something. "I haven't seen Dracae since forever. She's all grown up now, Kris said."

His egg hums and Adam sighs.

"I just-I wish I could write to him," Adam stares up at his ceiling. "I wish I knew that he was okay."

The answering glow from his egg makes Adam smile and it hums approval. Adam's not sure that he can send letters to Kris. The fairies who live in his mom's rosebushes aren't part of the Twilight Court. Well, Adam doesn't think they are and he's fairly sure his mom wouldn't let them live there if they were. Still, fairies are Fae. Whereever Kris is, Adam is pretty sure it's going to be Fae-proof.

"I'm going to try," Adam decides.

He writes using the same pen and paper that he's used every time so far so the fairies will recognize the letter and know who to deliver it to.

"Dear Kris (and Dracae),

I hope this letter gets to you but I figure that it doesn't hurt to try. If a guitar could get through, then a letter should be easy, right?

Things are weird here. They've closed the schools which doesn't seem like a smart idea to me but apparently they're afraid that the big bad Twilight Court is going to snatch us out of Algebra. I mean, I'd walk straight out if it meant never having to listen to Mr Harvey talk about simultaneous equations so I would show up at Algebra if I was an evil Fae monster so points for intelligence?

Neil wants me to say hi and that you need to be safe. He's getting really into the whole research thing and he says that he wants to be a reporter now. No, I don't know why he doesn't want to be a truck driver any more. It's Neil, who knows?

Mom says that she knows you'll be safe but she's worried about Dad which is kinda weird when you think about it. I mean, they're divorced or they're going to be really soon but Mom still worries about him like they were still married. Being grown-up honestly seems to be half hypocrisy and half making it up as you go along. Is it too late to say I don't wanna grow up?

I've been looking at my egg and he really, really doesn't want to hatch. I've been looking for cracks and there's nothing. ~~I don'~~ ~~The war~~ It's not that I'm afraid. I am but that's not all of it. If he hatches, then I'm going to have to go to war and I'm going to be really bad at it. But then you wouldn't be on your own any more so maybe it would be worth it. I just don't trust the other riders. Archibald was really a dick and I think he'd get lost trying to find the war. God only knows how bad he's going to be in an actual war.

Just, be careful, okay? I don't want you or Dracae getting hurt.

Adam."

  


> Adam,  
> No-one wants to tell me anything. We've been flying for days, it feels like days anyway and there are so many clouds. I haven't seen so many clouds since I left Arkansas. I don't think they're making it as far back as San Diego so you're just going to have to trust me when I say that there are so many clouds in the sky.  
> Flying is kind of awesome. Well, flying with a dragon is awesome. Dracae is the fastest dragon in the whole army. She loves flying too and it's nice to be able to have time to ourselves. No-one lets us have any time alone when we're not flying so we've been flying a lot. If you cast the right spell, you can actually make storm clouds go pop. Did you know that?  
> There's no-one to talk to out here. Everyone's old and they all want to talk about the war and how many people they've killed. It's gross because I keep thinking about how my momma wouldn't let us get the old-fashioned mouse-traps because it was a sin to kill something that couldn't help its nature. She'd be really disappointed in me, I think. Maybe that shouldn't matter but I can't stop thinking about it.

> -Kris

  


In the end, after meetings and meetings and even more meetings, Adam drops most of his school curriculum in favor of hours spent in the San Diego Tower archives. The official letter with the dragon seal gets him in wherever he wants to go and his teachers agree that it's the best place for Adam to study. He's still part of the Drama and Music classes because his mom insists but Adam's focus is magic, magick and the arts magfickal. He wants to be ready for when his egg hatches so he looks through every magical discipline.

The archives are libraries; actual paper and ink books crammed into shelves as tall as Adam's whole house is. It's like walking through a jungle of mismatched shelves and rustling paper and Adam actually likes it. It helps that, most of the time, Adam has the archives to himself.

The Tower hasn't got a Wizard most of the time. Every now and again, Adam will see someone wearing robes shuffling through the ritual rooms. He learns very fast not to look too close. The only Wizards who are sent back from the front lines are the maimed. Magical healing and repair is so advanced that it's practically a science in the Summerland Towers but it still takes a lot of time so the casualties are sent back into protected Towers.

The first casualty to come back had been missing her entire face. Adam had come around a corner, humming along to Queen's ' _I Want to Break Free_ ' and nearly run into her. 

"I'm sor- _Jesus_!" Adam recoils because oh God. There's bone, stark white and jarring, clearly showing through the charred and raw flesh where her cheekbones should be. Where her cheekbones really, really _are_ and Adam gags. There's a wet slurping sound as she breathes and Adam can see every strand of muscle move as she opens her mouth. Her tongue is vivid pink against the scorched red.

Her eyes are murky white and she doesn't have a nose, not at all. Her face looks more like a Halloween mask than a real human being. Adam stumbles back against the wall and she just keeps walking past like she doesn't even see him. As those dead white eyes stare at him, Adam realizes that she really might not be able to see him and he flattens himself back against the wall.

He can taste bile and stomach acid even as she walks (stumbles) past him and Adam has to shower for nearly an hour before he's convinced that he can't smell charred flesh on his skin anymore. It's his first indication that the war isn't going as well as the 24-news cycle wants people to believe it is.

  


> Adam,  
> Archibald was killed today. We were fighting thunder birds over near Kiamath Fall and three of them cornered him. It was all really confusing. I think he saved my life but it all happened so fast that I don't know for sure. Dracae won't talk about it, not even to me.  
> Archibald's Draco went insane. He got so big so fast that he blocked out all the sun. He turned the whole sky to fire and burned them all. Two other dragons and their riders were injured and the army had to stop fighting to put out the fire before it spread to the forests. No-one could fly so we had to conjure water right there and I don't think I've ever been so tired. We still lost most of the forest and all the animals that didn't get caught in the fire ran.  
> I saved a bird. I nearly killed it first but I used the healing spell that you wrote about and it didn't work on the others but one survived. Dracae hasn't made a joke about spiced chicken. She hasn't made any jokes. There's a lot of things Dracae isn't saying.  
> I don't want to do this anymore.  
> Kris

  


As the spring becomes summer, the tone of the news changes. There are still frequent reports of successful military actions but there isn’t any more news stories about how much longer the war was going to last. Adam's mom gets asked to do some work at the emergency aid station so Adam has to babysit Neil.

Neil, the eternal dork, spends his free time listening to the news and keeping notes in a big black and yellow binder so it's not exactly a hardship to watch him for a few days. Adam is working on the protective properties of the Seal of Solomon and being foiled by his inability to draw a proper circle when Neil pokes him.

"Motherfu-!" Adam throws down his pen and glares at the big red scribble across his pages of notes. "What?! I swear, the house better be on fire or something or I'm going to kick your ass!"

"No," Neil shrugs. "But I had a question."

Adam stares at his notes and very deliberately does _not_ set Neil's hair on fire. He actually could but then he'd have to take Neil to ER and get his last will and testament written before his mom killed him with her mind. 

"Aaaaadam," Neil whines, poking him in the side and Adam smacks his hands away.

"Fine, question, yes," he waits expectantly. "Well?"

"I was just wondering," Neil rubs an a spot on his jeans. "Why are we at war?"

"What?" 

"I mean," Neil starts tripping over his words, gesturing with his hands. "The declaration, right, that said that we were at war but it didn't say that the Twilight Court actually attacked us or anything so that can't be why. And I've been listening to all the news and they never talk about who the Twilight Court actually are."

"It's a Fae Court," Adam points out. "Duh."

"Yeah, but which one?" Neil has his binder out and starts leafing through the pages. "I mean, I never heard of them until the government announced we were going to war with them."

"Maybe they're one of the Courts from the last war?" Adam's history is hazy. He remembers that the War involved a lot of the smaller courts and that most of them were wiped out. Of course, when they'd been covering the War, Adam had been in the same class as Jeffery Stapleton. Jeffery had been blond, fashionable and had the most gorgeous smile. Adam had only just scraped a passing grade that term.

"I checked!" Neil sounds proud. "The closest I can get is the Court of the Autumn Equinox-"

"They could have changed their name," Adam suggests.

"- _and_ ," Neil continues. "That's just the name the Army gave them. They were a Slavic court and their name translates totally differently if you know Russian so that wouldn't work even if they _hadn't_ been exterminated during the siege of Moscow."

"Bullshit," Adam says automatically. "The Army never successfully destroyed a Court. I remember that."

"The US Army didn't," Neil nods. "And they never admitted it during the Cold War but the Russian army had nearly a thousand Wintersmiths and they really, _really_ didn't like being put under siege. The Soviet commanders got their army to Moscow and just turned them loose. It was the biggest slaughter of the whole war."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Neil rifles through his binder and turns it to let Adam see graphs. Multiple types of graphs and how, Adam wonders, did Neil manage to inherit all the dork in the Lambert genes? "That's actually why our government freaked. We didn't have anything that could match that until we recruited the riders. But that's all ancient history. My point is that I've looked through all the news reports and I never saw any mention of the Twilight Court until after we went to war with them."

Adam frowns. "That doesn't make sense."

"I know, right?" Neil is practically bouncing. "So, I thought that maybe it was something that I'd missed because I'm just a regular kid, right? So I thought that maybe they'd told you because you're practically a rider already, right?" 

"Stop saying right," Adam says automatically. He takes a second to think and the harder he tries to remember if he's heard of the Twilight Court, the more certain he is that he never did. "And no, I never heard of the Twilight Court either."

"But then nothing makes sense!" Neil whines. "We never hear about these guys and then suddenly we're at war with them?"

"They must have done something," Adam says firmly. He knows that the Fae Courts have seriously freaky ideas of honor and vengeance. One of the English Courts had a Queen that spent four hundred years turning anyone who played Titania in a Midsummer Night's Dream into a donkey. She hadn't even hated the play or anything, she just felt like people didn't take her seriously or something.

"But what?" Neil insists. "One day, they don't exist and then we're straight into all-out war?" 

"This isn't all out war," Adam interrupts before Neil can veer into crackpot conspiracy theory territory. "All out war would mean everyone with magical potential would be on the front lines. This is a proactive, defensive military action."

"Defensive?" Neil starts flicking through pages.

"Yeah, that's what the guards at the Tower say," Adam puts the cap on his red pen. He doesn't really feel like working on the Seal of Solomon right now. "Maybe the Twilight Court tried to invade?" 

"When?" Neil demands. "Where? The news had all the details about the Arizona troll five minutes after it wandered across the border but they somehow missed a full-scale invasion?"

"I guess it depends on where they invaded from," Adam says slowly. "Not all the Courts use the mundane world as a base."

"That's not the point!" Neil waves his binder at Adam who sits back sharply to avoid getting hit in the face. "The point is that _somehow_ this new Court, who no-one's ever heard of, and no-one knows for sure where they're based, showed up and then waited for us to declare war before trying to invade us? It doesn't make sense."

"You must be missing something," Adam says. "Someone's got to know more than that."

"Most people," Neil says with a surprising amount of venom, "just hear 'Fae' assume that they have to be the bad guys."

"That's because they usually are," Adam points in the interests of fairness. "There's a reason people tell fairy tales."

"Okay," Neil folds his arms. "But that's not a reason to go to war. We'd never have stopped being at war if we just went to war with anything that was Fae."

"I don't know what you're expecting me to say," Adam grumbles. 

"I want you to tell me the answer!" Neil flails and some pages fall out of his binder. "I want to know why we're at war and why nobody else cares that we don't know why!" 

"Fine," Adam throws up his hands. "I'll look in the archives and see if they mention it. Happy?" 

"It'll do," Neil collects up his papers and Adam stares down at his notes. The red pen has leaked all over the top three pages and there's ink on his fingers. In the dim light, it looks like blood.

  


> "Adam,  
> There definitely are spells that can do what you were talking about. Mass influence via magic isn't really a human thing though, you need a lot of power and you can't actually make people do something they really don't want to. You wouldn't be able to make classic rock fans like Backstreet Boys even.  
> All you can do is kind of nudge people to do something that they wouldn't really mind doing. In the books that I read, the example was a mom trying to compel her kids to do the housework. She made it so they would feel the need to do the chores whenever they saw that they needed to be done which made them stop noticing that the house was dirty. Dracae says that the human mind is incredibly twisty.  
> There's nothing really happening here; some sluagh attacked last night. They screamed an awful lot but they didn't really do any damage. We had to chase them through the marshes. Did you know there were marshes in North California? The bird that I saved ~~back North~~ is still around. I don't know how he keeps up. I'm calling him Daniel. Unless he turns out to be a she. That would be a weird name for a girl bird, wouldn't it?  
>  Kris."

  


Adam does look through the archives for information on the Courts when he goes in. He even prepares a whole ream of spelled paper to copy it out so Neil can read his geeky little heart out. After six hours combing every available shelf, Adam uses five pages and most of the last three is the same thing as the first two pages, just worded differently.

Adam searches through the archives again but there's nothing serious on the Courts themselves. Oh, every bestiary dutifully lists 'Court Affiliation' under the description of the Fae that they're describing but even there, Adam sees the same race listed under half a dozen affiliations. There isn't any recognizable pattern that he can see; different books group different races under various Court banners.

He gets home late and Neil is still awake, yawning and heavy-eyed but determinedly awake. Adam doesn't mention the way the whole kitchen stinks of coffee or tell him off. Neil is staring at him with fierce focus and Adam digs out his measly five pages.

"That's all there is," he says, voice dragging with exhaustion. "I've looked through every damn book in the whole Tower."

Neil grabs the pages and starts squinting at them right there in the hallway. Adam dumps his bag by the hall table and shoves Neil towards the stairs.

"Read it in morning, dumbass," he says. "You'll just fall asleep and drool on it if you try to read it tonight."

Whatever sarcastic comment Neil was planning to make is lost in his huge yawn. Adam rolls his eyes and sends him upstairs to bed. He sets the wards carefully and stumbles to his own bed. His egg is glowing again - a weird fractal pattern that makes Adam's head spin.

"I wish you'd hurry up and hatch," he tells his egg.

His mom gets back the next day. Neil has already read Adam's five pages so many times that Adam thinks he must have memorized them. His binder is open on the kitchen table and Neil is scribbling feverishly. Adam has to do all the chores himself because Neil refuses to be distracted from his stupid graphs and pages of notes.

It's a relief when his mom comes in the door and the whole house brightens.

"Mom!" Neil shoots up from his chair and races out to the hallway. "Mom, I need your help! I've been working on the Courts and it's not making sense and Adam's no help, like, _at all_ and-"

Adam's behind him but he's tall enough to see over Neil's head so he sees the way his mom's lip press together and the slight hesitation before she smiles and reaches out to hug Neil. He rubs at his collarbone and feels the small lump of his charm against his fingertips. 

"It's good to see you too, hon," his mom teases and hugs him. "Let me get in the door before you start demanding things, Neil. I know I raised you better than that."

Neil hugs her back and goes a little pink. Adam stays back and notices the way his mom's eyes squeeze shut and she looks small and old. Adam blinks and his mom is straightening up and smiling and she looks normal. Adam steps forward to hug her and his mom squeezes him tight for a second.

"Did anything happen?" 

"No," Adam says reassuringly. "Well, Neil proved that he's going to be a dork for his whole life and leave me to keep the Lambert name from falling into perpetual dorkiness but that's not anything new."

"Hey!" Neil objects and punches Adam in the shoulder. Adam catches him in a headlock and they push each other around the hallway until their mom breaks them up with two well-placed swats. 

"I see you boys are still behaving like children then," she sighs. "Who's going to take my bag or will I have to lug it in myself?" 

Adam, still sulkily rubbing his ass, picks up her bag. It weighs a ton and he nearly pulls something just straightening up. It's not a big bag but Adam's mom can fit so much stuff in so little space that it probably weighs as much as Neil.

He brings it up to her room and puts it by the bed. He hasn't been in his parents' room since before his dad left and he looks around curiously. There's almost nothing of his dad's left; the old shaving mirror/scrying focus and some books that Adam remembers him reading on the shelves. On the locker that was his dad's, there's a photo of all four of them in a polished wooden frame. It looks old; Adam can't be more than eight and he runs a finger over his big round face and hopes that his dad is safe.

Neil is showing their mom his binder full of notes and graphs when Adam gets downstairs. Adam sighs and gets a soda out of the fridge while Neil rants about the Twilight Court. Adam stays leaning against the counter as he drinks. He wouldn't admit it under pain of death but he really wanted to know if there was some really obvious explanation for why he'd never heard of it.

"So," Neil says finally. "Adam checked the archives for me and he didn't find anything about them so do you know who they are?"

Adam's mom sips at her tea and looks at Neil's notes for a second. "They're the Court we're at war with."

Adam chokes on his soda and Neil's jaw is hanging open. Their mom smiles at them as she finishes her tea. Neil is literally stunned silent and when she hands him some potatoes and a peeler, he doesn't even argue. Adam gets sent down to the store for milk and they have a very quiet dinner that night. No-one talks about the Courts or the war.

"You have to understand," Adam's mom says later that night when Neil's in bed. "We don't actually know much about the Fae Courts."

"Summer and Winter Courts," Adam mentions because yeah, everyone knows about those. After Seelie and UnSeelie, that's the biggest known divide in the Fae ranks.

"Which aren't really Courts by the Fae's reckoning," his mom says matter-of-factly and Adam sputters. 

"What?" 

"Your grandfather knew more about it than I did," his mom sighs and sips at her tea. "He spent his life studying them. He said that we spent so much time trying to see the human in the Fae that we forgot that they are subject to none of our laws. He spent my whole life obsessed with them."

"You make it sound like he was some great explorer," Adam tries not to be bitter. "He hated magic. That doesn't sound like he thought they were this big wonderful thing!" 

His mom sets her tea down and looks at her hands for a minute. "I think...I think you'd understand if you knew how much he did love the Fae once. When I was growing up, he used to tell me all the stories and draw pictures of the Fae he'd found that no-one else ever knew existed. He used to talk about the trips he and my mother would take like they were the greatest adventures in the whole world."

She trails off and Adam folds his hands around his egg. "I wish you could have known him then. He would have been so proud of you. He always said our family had Fae in its blood and he was so proud, every time I learned a new spell..."

"What changed?" Adam asks. The way his mom talks about Grandpa, wistful and sad, Adam can almost imagine him smiling; proud instead of contemptuous and telling stories with a twinkle in his eye, lighting the candles with a snap of his fingers instead of drowning Adam's cake in wine.

"I don't know," his mom says and the tea cup rattles as she picks it up. "Sometimes I think it was losing Mom; they loved each other so much and he always said that they would never be complete without each other."

She stops talking and Adam looks down at his hands and there's a moment of silence before his mom clears her throat and keeps going. "But he was still him, underneath it all. He loved you boys and he spent all his time with us. He didn't even drink. He used to make you those little wooden toys and play with you. He even taught you your first spell."

"He did?" Adam's memories of his grandfather are vague but they're all of angry words and slurred curses. He doesn't remember- his first spell for a night-fly to keep the shadows away until he was asleep and he doesn't remember a time when he couldn't cast it. He thinks about it, fingers shaping the gestures and there's a flicker of memory, a deep voice carefully enunciating the words as he struggled to relax his wrist and crook his fingers just right.

"He did," his mom is staring into the distance. "Then just before your tenth birthday, something changed. I don't know what but he started to change. He was so angry," she shakes her head, "So bitter. I still don't know what happened. It was like he changed completely and it happened so fast - practically overnight."

"Why did he change?" Adam wondered.

"I don't know," his mom stands up goes to pour out her tea. "I didn't notice at first. Maybe I didn't want to notice but it got hard to ignore." She stands at the sink and looks out into the garden where Adam can just see a couple of fairies circling like tiny earthbound stars. His mom sighs heavily. "You're old enough to understand that me and your dad are just human but it's hard to remember that your parents are just human all the time."

Adam looks away, squirming internally. His mom isn't normally the touchy-feeling kind of mom; this is the most in-depth talk about emotions they've had since she told him that she was breaking up with his dad.

"I didn't follow his research," his mom says briskly, straightening up. "It wasn't my area but I kept all of his notes and records. Neil's still too young but I think you should look through it. If you really want to know about the Twilight Court, that's the best information you're going to find on them."

More homework, Adam sighs. How is it fair that school gets cancelled and he gets even more homework?

  


> Adam,  
> I don't know how much they're telling you but it's not been a good few days. We've been fighting every minute that we're awake and we're losing. The whole sky is red with fire and there is more magic than air in the air. So many people are just gone. The generals try to get them to retreat but they have to rest and every time they rest, people disappear.  
> No-one will admit it but Dracae and I have been covering the retreat and we've seen people that were on our side in among the Twilight Court's forces after they disappear. Apollo - he's the guy that replaced Archibald out here - says that they're going to start targeting dragons. Of course, they've been saying that the Twilight Court is going to target the dragons since the war started.  
> It's been a long time since the war started. Is it weird that I don't remember being at the Dragon Tower? I remember all my lessons and everything like that but it's hard to remember that I used to sleep in a bed not on the wing and I don't remember what's it like to sit down and eat. The longer we're out here, the hard it gets to remember that there's anywhere but here.  
> We found Archibald's bones. Did I tell you that? It took all of us casting scrying spells for three months but Apollo says we have them all so he's not going to be eternally tormented as a enslaved soul of the Twilight Court's nobles. I thought eternal torment was just something my Pastor made up but now it's real? Did you know about that?  
> -Kris

  


Despite his mom's best efforts, Adam doesn't get his hands on his grandfather's records until he's nineteen. There's some legal mess with the will and his mom doesn't have the time or the money to fight it. Adam spends a week being frustrated and then channels all his frustration into his studies.

Adam's old social life dies off and he doesn't even notice. He still has friends from his Drama club but that changes too because Drama club splits. Half the club audition for the Homeland Cheer Foundation and go off to perform shows to help convince people that everything is fine. Adam doesn't like the shows; they're all apple pie and rosy-cheeked kids singing about how wonderful the Summerlands are.

The music is straight out of the Forties, with added white-guy rap and electronica. The one show Adam goes to, because it's Alisan's first show and he has to, gives him an honest to God migraine. The notes are off just enough to make his teeth hurt. He still claps and hugs Alisan and conjures flowers for her because she's going to be big. She's going to be huge someday and Adam tells her that.

"Not as big as you!" Alisan shouts back and Adam rolls his eyes.

"Because a fat ginger Jew is what people imagine when they think of a rockstar." Adam hugs her tight.

"You're more than that," Alisan says in his ear. "You're more than just a kid with an egg too. Don't forget that."

"I'm going to be a rider," Adam says. He's not enthusiastic about it but he's sure that it's true. Adam just knows that he's going to be a rider in the same way that he knows he's only attracted to boys. "That's not going to change."

"You're going to be an adult too," Alisan says tartly. "Allegedly at least. I'm not saying you have to hand back your egg or whatever. Just remember that the world is a multi-colored spectrum."

"Are you drunk?" Adam asks, looking around her tiny dressing room. "Because, really, you should be sharing if you are. I promise not to judge you."

"I'm not drunk!" Alisan pulls back with an indignant snort. Adam sniffs the air as discreetly as he can. "I'm not high either! I'm just saying. When you're a kid, it's okay to think that there's only one 'right way' to do something. Just because you have to be a rider, that doesn't mean you have to be the square-jawed action man rider. If this is something you're going to do for your whole life, make sure it's something you're happy to do for your whole life. Okay?"

"Okay," Adam promises and sweeps her off her feet in another hug. Alisan squeals and smacks his shoulder but she's laughing too.

Adam gets drunk for the second time in his life that night. Alisan drags him out with the rest of the show people and they go to a shady little bar where the choreographer knows some people and they don't check IDs. Adam doesn't actually buy any alcohol but Ramsey, the corn-fed chorus boy who's been flirting with Alisan all night, brings cocktails back. 

Adam likes being drunk. Adam really likes being drunk with these people who are outrageous, funny and laidback about everything. Adam could belong with people like this and the whole night feels like a game or a method exercise. Adam doesn't think about his egg or magic or Kris and Dracae, and he still has a good time.

But when he wakes up the next morning, feeling like someone stampeded elephants over his head, he thinks maybe he should just stick to magic. He gropes for the hangover-reduction charm on his locker and sighs with relief as his hangover fades into a faint ache in his temples.

He loses track of a lot of people after Alisan leaves. The Drama and Choir clubs quietly disband as people get pulled away. Adam calls Alisan every other week if he has a number for her latest venue but he doesn't really keep in touch with the rest of them. 

What Adam does do is start researching. At first, it's because Adam wants to know if a dragonrider can blend music and magic. Riders don't need the formal spells or components; like Kris told him years before, it's all about intent. Adam has to make most of it up as he goes along and relearn how to cast spells from scratch but it works.

His egg stops growing and mostly stays at a low glowing ebb. As the theories of magic get boring, Adam starts to look into the history of the wars against the Fae. The history as told by the Archives was very different to the history Adam remembered from school. Adam's teachers made it sound like humanity had shown up around the Stone Age and the Fae had been dicks to them then the Fae started to lose as soon as humanity discovered pointy sticks.

It's not nearly that simple, according to the old books that Adam finds stacked haphazardly in the history section. The Fae are an ever present influence in human history but the role they play changes; Fae in African countries are seen as ancestor spirits and Adam spends a month reading academic papers arguing over whether or not the Ancestor Spirits are ghosts, Fae pretending to be ghosts or, and this is the idea that Adam only finds in one paper, Fae who genuinely are the ancestors of the people they protect.

The paper on that is locked in the back of the restricted section with a big red "WITHDRAWN" stamp on the first page. Adam's the only student in the whole Tower who can look in this section. It's dated 1971 and the stamp has a eagle crest and the letters 'DMHDC' at the bottom. Adam reads it twice.

It's a crazy idea but as Adam studies more, he finds a whole world of theories that he never even considered. There are papers arguing that the Fae are gods, weakened and chaotic, who are battling for control of the world: others say that the Fae are the result of a purely Magical evolution and that they don't look anything like humans in their 'natural' state but copy the appearance and mannerisms of the humans they interact with.

It's all complicated and confusing and Adam doesn't think there's enough time in the world to read all the studies and dry books full of boring details. But there is one thing that does stick in his mind because it's so different from what he's been told.

Every serious academic study that Adam can find says that Fae and humans used to co-exist and agrees that the line between them isn't as solid as Adam's training suggests.

  


> Adam,  
> Happy birthday! I hope you had a really good one. Did you have a party or are you too old for that? The last birthday I was at was Katy's nineth birthday party and I bet you wouldn't enjoy a pink princess party. There wasn't a lot of glitter and we wound up playing in the mud.  
> I would send you a present but there aren't any shopping malls here. I'm not sure where here is actually. They're moving us around a lot. Me and Dracae us, not the dragons us. I don't know why. I'm still the new kid to everyone and they don't tell me anything.  
> We have a lot more dragons out here now. I don't know why and Dracae says that it doesn't make tactical sense. I'm starting to regret letting her eat that copy of Art of War. We're being pushed east, she thinks, even though I don't think we're winning. We're not losing but we're not winning. We can't keep any non-magical troops on the front line because we lose them if they sleep. So they only fight for a few hours a day then they have to go back and hide in their camps before the sun sets. It makes things interesting when night falls.  
> And I've gotten distracted. I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday. Maybe next year I'll actually make it? Probably not but it's nice to hope, you know?  
> -Kris

  


Adam goes to a Karaoke bar in LA for his nineteenth birthday. His mom books a hotel room for him which Adam thinks is awesome and she pointedly doesn't notice when Adam slips a fake ID into his suitcase. On the day before his birthday, she gives him an envelope of cash and the car keys and tells him that he has to be back by Monday morning. "With gas in the tank, buster!"

It's the coolest present _ever_ and Neil is so jealous Adam can see the green glow (he actually can and Adam really hopes the aura-reading spell wears off before he gets to LA). He puts in a Bon Jovi CD and drives off.

A cop pulls him over about five miles away from his hotel for a routine license and registration check. Adam opens the glove compartment to get his license out and what looks like a hundred foil-wrapped condoms fall out onto the seat and the floor and Adam goes really, obviously red. The cop clears his throat and Adam manages to find his license and hands it over, staring fixedly at the steering wheel.

"That all seems to be in order. Thank you, sir," the cop says kindly. "It's good to see a kid your age being safe. Good for you, son."

"Thank you, sir," Adam manages and the cop goes back to his car.

Adam gathers up as many of the condoms as he can find. They're all extra large and Adam really, really hopes that the bar isn't going to look too hard at his ID because he doesn't think there's enough alcohol in the whole of the Summerlands to blot out that experience. He's going to kill his mom. Or Neil.

The hotel is the cheap cousin of a Holiday Inn but it's right across the road from the bar and the sheets on the bed are clean and there are no cockroaches in the bathroom so Adam calls it a win and drops his suitcase off. He takes the time to lay his own wards, focuses carefully woven out of red and purple yarn because he doesn't want to bring his egg into the bar but he doesn't like leaving it behind either.

The wards are the best compromise he can think of and Adam looks at himself in the mirror and shudders. It's not that Adam came to LA to get laid or anything, though he's not ruling out the possibility, but he'd like to look good. He showers, fusses with his hair and puts on some of the clothes that he got for his birthday and the last of the make-up that Kris gave him, long ago. He's pleasantly surprised to find that the waistband of his new dark pants is loose but choosing the right belt takes another ten minutes. 

The worst part is that Adam's new shirt, which makes his shoulders look broad and doesn't make him look fat, has a low-cut collar so Adam's turquoise charm shows against his collarbone. All the belts that Adam packed are brown leather with green sequins. After finding a belt that doesn't look hideous, Adam checks his nails and make-up for another fifteen minutes before admitting that he's nervous. He goes to double-check the warding and protective spells around his egg. His egg is glowing pink/red and the hum is just one low continuous note.

Adam counts out a hundred bucks from the money his mom gave him and makes sure he has his fake ID. He hesitates for a second, then grabs a fistful of the condoms from the glove box. Then he marches his ass out the damn door and across the street before he can freak himself out. The bar is called 'Fiddle at the Crossroads' and there are Celtic knotwork designs on the doors and the window frames. The bouncer steps out to block the door and Adam holds up his ID. The guy's huge, taller than Adam and bulky with muscle. In the street light, his skin looks grey. He's holding up a hand, not even looking at Adam's fake ID (and wasn't that a waste of forty bucks, Adam thinks sourly) then he stops. He's staring at Adam's neck and Adam has this dreadful moment where he's convinced that he missed a spot when he was shaving or something.

"You...wanna come in?" The bouncer asks, not looking up to meet Adam's eyes and Adam wonders if this is how Alisan feels all the time?

"Yeah?" Adam says, arching an eyebrow and biting back the urge to snap 'Eyes up here, buster!'

"Be welcome," the guy says, stepping back and unhooking the velvet rope behind him. Adam hadn't noticed that before and he rolls his eyes. Wow, pretentious or what? Adam's the only prospective customer on the whole street. He nods to the guy and steps past him.

The bar is surprisingly busy. The lighting is shit, mostly dim and there's a pall of smoke hanging overhead that smells of woodsmoke and cigarettes. Adam coughs and looks around. It's an Irish bar, which Adam should have guessed, and there are green drapes and Celtic-knot tapestries hanging on the wood paneled walls. The sound system is playing 'Come on Eileen' and people are singing along. Adam can just see the karaoke screen towards the back of the bar and he pushes through the crowd towards it.

The floor is sticky and Adam accidentally stumbles into a guy. Well, Adam nearly trips over a guy and he starts babbling apologies. "Oh my god, I am so sorry! I'm such a klutz!"

"Hey, don't sweat it," the guy says. He's got a nice voice, deep and with just a hint of a Southern drawl. He's got a nice smile, Adam thinks. He's also wearing half his drink and Adam just wants to die. "Accidents happen."

"I really am sorry," Adam says again because seriously, how unfair is it that when he finally gets to meet a cute older guy at a bar, he fucks it up. "Can I buy you another?"

The guy drains the last of his current drink and smiles again. He's wearing a dark shirt and jeans that cling to his legs. Adam swallows.

"Yeah," the guy smiles and unbuttons his collar. Adam swallows again. He can see a leather cord, dark against golden skin, with a blue stone on it but mostly he's staring at the bare patch of skin. "I think I'd like that."

  


> Adam,  
> I think, maybe, this is going to be the last time I write to you. I don't even think this is going to reach you but I have one hour left until the sun sets and it's not like I need to conserve my magic anymore. I'm sorry. I really wish I could have seen you again but I guess it wasn't to be.  
> There's some things that I never told you and I guess I don't have any reason not to say it now so here goes. First, I'm not gay but I like boys as much as I like girls. Second, I know where Cale went after he left home and I never wrote to his family to say. Third, I wrote to my folks and I sent a card for my mom's birthday and Christmas every year but this one. Four, I helped Dracae break her egg. That one I'm still not supposed to tell you. It's part of being ready to be a rider.  
> Five, I hate being one of the riders. I love Dracae and I'm happy to be her rider but the Riders can go fuck themselves. Six, I could have saved Archibald but I didn't because I was scared and he was a jerk and I have nightmares about that. Six, I still have that charm that your mom gave me but I hid it when Apollo told me to throw it away.  
> Seven, ~~I love~~ I ~~had~~ have such a crush on you. I was going to visit you, after I finished training and ask you out. You would have said no but at least you would have known. And you would have still been my friend because you're awesome like that. You're going to be even more awesome and I'm sorry that I'm not going to be there to see it.  
>  They're coming. Dracae needs me. Be safe. Be happy. Have a long and fantastic life, Adam.  
> Love,  
> Kris

  



	5. Chapter 5

  


Adam loses his virginity in the bathroom of the 'Fiddle at the Crossroads' to the guy he stumbled into. He's not even drunk really; he's had one vodka and coke, and a gin and tonic. He's giddy, light-headed and when his guy kisses him, Adam doesn't even feel embarrassed. He just kisses him back and okay, it's probably the worst kiss in the history of kisses. 

Adam hasn't kissed a lot of people, okay? But his guy doesn't mind, angling his head so Adam can kiss him properly and he doesn't flinch from Adam's sloppy enthusiasm. Adam's kissing and there is tongue and Adam doesn't even notice he's being guided to the bathroom until his back hits the tiles.

The stall is too small and the floor is slick. Adam winds up sitting, tangling his fingers in the guy's shirt and pulling at the belt-loops of his jeans, trying to get him closer. They're still kissing, desperate and hungry until his guy pushes back to fumble with Adam's fly.

"Wait," Adam gasps and his guy goes still, hands freezing against Adam's belly. "No, not...I don't even know your name?" 

His guy licks his lips and Adam stares at his mouth. His lower lip is swollen and pink and Adam's mouth goes dry. He leans forward to kiss him again. His guy's mouth softens and he leans into the kiss, teeth scraping against Adam's lip. 

"....Neil," his guy says as he pulls Adam's fly open and closes his hand around Adam's cock. Adam's hips jerk up and his guy's shoulders hit the door of the stall and there's a moment, maybe, where it might give way. Adam doesn't really notice. He's rutting into his guy- into _Neil_ 's hand. The air is humming with the muted music from the bar and there's a stink of bleach and stale booze in the air.

Adam's whole awareness is centered on his cock and the dry drag of Neil's hand. He can't control himself, can't even co-ordinate kissing Neil with the way his hips jerk up and wow, sex feels _awesome_!

"It's going to get better," Neil laughs against his mouth and _lets go of Adam's dick_.

Adam makes a guttural sound of protest; he is so far past verbal at this point that Neil is lucky Adam didn't just bite him. His hands feel too big and clumsy as he paws at Neil's shirt. Neil darts in to kiss him again.

"Patience," Neil laughs against his mouth. "Need some slick and a condom."

"Oh," Adam gasps back and Neil digs a hand into Adam's pocket and comes up with like three condoms. Adam's just about coherent enough to want to die at the laughter dancing in Neil's brown eyes. 

"Such a Boy Scout," Neil thumbs his dick and Adam forgets to be embarrassed, tipping his head back against the grimy wall and moaning low in his throat.

There's more touching and the condom feels cool and the sensation makes Adam shiver. Neil kisses the side of his mouth and lets go of Adam's cock. There's only a second of loss and then his weight is settling into Adam's lap and Adam's eyes cross with the effort not to completely embarrass himself before he's even inside Neil.

Neil's panting and the bare patch of skin at the base of his neck is shiny with sweat. With Neil kneeling over him, they're almost the same height and his necklace clicks against Adam's. Adam bites at the tendon on the side of his neck to keep from losing his goddamn mind. He tastes salt and leather, and Neil hisses. Adam has a second to feel smug, then Neil sits down, taking Adam all the way and Adam chokes on his own tongue.

It's over very fast. Adam would be embarrassed but his bones have liquefied and he's panting for air, uncomfortably aware of the way his new shirt is sticking to his shoulder blades. His underwear is bunched under his dick and his pants are going to be so creased. Neil is leaning into him, breath hot and humid against Adam's neck.

Adam catches his breath and starts to feel embarrassment creeping back in. The sex was incredible and okay, Adam wouldn't have chosen to lose his virginity in the bathroom of an Irish karaoke bar if he'd been asked but he really isn't complaining. Sex really is awesome.

He just doesn’t have the first clue as to what happens now.

Do they swap numbers? Hang out some more? Neil is hot and he just let Adam fuck him which almost makes up for having the same name as Adam's kid brother - and god, Adam is not thinking about his brother just after sex, ew, ew, _ew_ \- so Adam wouldn't mind hanging out. He _really_ wants to change his clothes and have a shower first. Or maybe Neil's just going to zip up and leave? Is this going to be like urinal etiquette? Eyes forward, pretend he didn't just have his cock...?

Neil shifts, easing up with a hiss of breath.

"Are you okay?" Adam blurts out before he can panic about being rude.

"'m good," Neil nods but he doesn't look at Adam. "Coulda used some more lube, that's all. I always forget-"

He doesn't finish that thought and Adam feels young and stupid. He fumbles for his pants as Neil separates them and hopes he isn't blushing. Neil pulls his pants up and stands over Adam. It's Adam's turn not to look up and he jumps when Neil cups his cheek.

"Hey, don't look like that," Neil kisses him. It's chaste, just a light brush of lips. "That was incredible, okay?"

Adam is definitely blushing now and he clears his throat. "I-...you were really good too."

Neil's smile is lopsided and there's something familiar about it but before Adam can even begin to try remembering why, Neil kisses him again. It's deeper and Adam tips his head up into the kiss. Neil kisses him like they've known each other for years and Adam feels a vaguely interested twitch in his dick.

Before he can ask Neil if he wants to hang around for another round, Neil pulls back and looks over his shoulder like he's heard something. Adam listens but all he hears is the muffled notes of 'I Will Survive' being mangled by some drunk.

"I have to go," Neil looks back at him, expression torn and Adam licks his lips. "But, Adam, you are an amazing man. I- there are people who love you and always will. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be willing to try. Don't forget that, okay? Promise me that you won't forget."

"I promise?" Adam says, bewildered. "But how did you know-?"

"I have to go," Neil unlatches the stall door. The door swings open, and he's gone.

"-My name?" Adam finishes the question and leaves it hanging in the air. He stands up on still-shaky legs and does up his pants. Neil isn't in the main bathroom as Adam totters over to the sink to wash his hands and there's no sign that he ever was. The door opens in a burst of off-key singing and the guy who comes in goes straight for the urinal.

Adam brings his hand up to scratch absently at his collarbone and his fingers brush the turquoise charm around his neck. Adam glances up at the mirror over the sinks and freezes. He can see the guy at the urinals behind him in the reflection. The guy isn't human; not unless humans suddenly come with antlers.

Adam swallows and his hand closes convulsively around his charm. He starts to edge for the door, watching the guy in the mirror at every single step. He's going to have to get help. A Fae right here in the middle of LA is a disaster! He needs to call a Wizard or a cop or something!

He's nearly to the door when he feels the warm pulse against his palm. He bumps the door with his hip even as he opens his hand to look. There's a really confusing second and then Adam's....standing on the street, staring at boarded up windows as traffic passes behind him. Adam blinks, once, twice and looks around.

That's his hotel behind him and there are the shops and Chinese take-out place at the corner but when Adam turns back, there's still an old derelict building where the bar should be. He looks really closely and can just about see the edge of a Celtic-knot pattern under the grime and the graffiti.

Adam actually pokes the wall and it's real. He looks up from his grubby finger at the bar that isn't there. "What the fuck just happened?"

  


Adam gets back to his room and locks the door behind him, leaning against it and trying really hard not to hyperventilate. He can still taste vodka in the back of his throat and he's still sweaty and disheveled. He's also apparently insane because even when he looks out the window, all he can see is the derelict building that was a bar.

"Okay, okay," he says, raking his fingers through his hair. "Gotta calm down. Gotta think. This is crazy and I didn't imagine it. I couldn't have imagined it."

He flops down on the bed, reaching for his egg. It feels hot against his skin and Adam rolls it thoughtfully against his palms. His heart is still beating like a jackhammer and he's only just starting to catch his breath.

"I didn't imagine it," he says again, like there's someone there to convince. "I really did go to a bar that isn't there anymore, and I fucked a guy who told me he loved me, and then I was washing my hands and I-"

He lifts a hand to the charm around his neck and feels it warm under his fingers. It occurs to him belatedly that he still has no idea what the charm actually does. His mom's only ever told him that it was for protection but she'd kept it locked in a box for most of his life. She'd never told him it was there until they went to the Keep. 

Adam closes his hand around the charm as he goes to sit up and his egg rolls down his stomach and into his free hand. Adam nearly drops it. Something feels wrong and he looks around. The hotel room is just as it was two seconds ago but the smooth curve of his egg isn't smooth anymore. Adam looks down and there are cracks covering every inch and suddenly Adam's egg, which has survived two years of high school and three years being dragged around everywhere Adam went, looks fragile.

Adam lets go of the charm and there is a second when the egg feels smooth but it rocks in Adam's hand and this time he hears it crack. 

"Oh god," Adam starts to panic. "Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god!"

He cups his egg in both hands and wonders if he's going to have a heart-attack. Should he phone his mom? Phone Neil? Call down to the lobby? No, that would be stupid. The Dragon Palace is close, right? Is there an emergency number? Is this supposed to happen? What happens if his dragon is stuck inside the egg? 

Adam's hands tighten and there is another, more final, _crack_.

The egg pretty much dissolves in his hands, shattering into powder-fine fragments and smoke pours out of Adam's cupped hands in a big black spiral that fills the whole room. Adam's breath freezes in his lungs, which is just as well, God knows what would happen if he breathed in any of the smoke. 

Two huge eyes open right in the middle of the smoke and Adam freezes. They're bright blue and shining like car headlights. Adam's heart skips a beat.

" _At last,_ " the voice says from inside his head. " _I am Ferrus and you are mine. I have found you again._ "

"Again," Adam says weakly. "I mean, uh, hi. I'm-"

" _Adam, son of Leila, son of Eber._ " The smoke solidifies into a huge dragon. He's glossy black with a silver shine and he fills the whole room. " _I know._ "

His mouth opens and Adam flinches a little but the dragon - _his dragon_ \- just flicks the very tip of his tongue against Adam's cheek. Ferrus' tongue is warm and just a little rough. It's like being licked by a pointy-tongued cat and Adam reaches out tentatively to rub the underside of Ferrus' jaw. Ferrus rumbles approval and leans a little into Adam's fingers.

" _I have missed you,_ " Ferrus tells him as he shifts to curl closer. 

"Missed me?" Adam says. "What do you mean you missed me? I was gone for like three hours! That's not enough time to miss me! Also, can I point out that you weren't even hatched yet!"

Ferrus curls his head to stare down at him and blows a smoke ring into his face. " _Do I look like a hatchling to you?_ "

"Well," Adam looks at the roomful of dragon. "...no. Dracae was a lot smaller when she hatched."

" _You remember Dracae? Kristopher's Dracae?_ " Ferrus angles his head and Adam feels a sinking dread in his belly. He doesn't see why this is a problem but he's had a long day, he's probably still a little tipsy under the shock and he wants his life to go back to making sense right now.

"Yeah, of course I do," Adam says. "She hatched right in front of me!" 

" _You remember that?_ " Ferrus is giving him the same dubious look his Algebra teacher used to when Adam told her that he really had done his homework, and it had been easy. " _You remember Kristopher?_ "

"How many dorky kids do you think wind up in our old tree-house?" Adam rolls his eyes.

" _Tree house?_ " Ferrus blinks at him. " _What tree house?_ "

"The one in the back yard," Adam says more slowly because he can feel Ferrus' confusion like a cold draft against the back of his neck. "Neil hid him there for like a week and there was a storm and he needed to come inside."

" _How old was Kristopher?_ " Ferrus demands. " _In this house of trees, how old was Kristopher?_ "

"Ten," Adam says, confused. "He was ten years old."

" _I see, _" Ferrus butts his nose against Adam's shoulder. " _You should shower and fetch clothing that does not reek of taverns and intercourse."___

Adam goes red and sputters, and Ferrus laughs at him. He doesn't make any sound or anything so obvious but he is laughing. Adam can tell. He folds his arms and glares at Ferrus.

"Why do I need to get changed?" Adam grumbles. "The only place I'm going is straight to bed."

" _We are going to see one who can give you answers,_ " Ferrus says firmly. " _I wish that I could answer but my perceptions are limited and I cannot hope to explain in a way you will understand._ "

"But this person we're going to see can explain it to me?" Adam says, deeply skeptical.

" _He can,_ " Ferrus says firmly, nudging Adam into the bathroom. " _But he will be far more accommodating if you do not stink like an open sewer._ "

"You suck," Adam mutters but he goes to shower anyway.

  


Adam stays in the shower for nearly half an hour. The hot water runs out after five minutes but Adam only has to think how useful it would be if the showerhead heated the water and suddenly it's running hot again. He can also feel Ferrus. It isn't anything solid and Adam can't really put the feeling into words. There's a certainty that Ferrus is there and real and Adam's dragon. It makes it harder to deny what's happened. The freak-out, he's managing just fine. Adam stares at the soap dish on the wall and tries not to hyperventilate his way into a panic attack. He can't even start to deal with the whole charm thing so he wonders who Ferrus is taking him to see.

Could it be Kris? Adam hasn't had an actual letter from Kris in years. He's gotten the terse 'Your friend/family member was engaged in this battle and is still alive." from the Duke of Dragon Palace. Nothing from Kris. 

Adam would be totally okay with just staying in the shower for the rest of the night but there is a thump and some rattling from the room and Adam winces as he hears something break.

" _Ah,_ " Ferrus' voice is carefully neutral. " _That was unfortunate._ "

"What did you do?" Adam head-butts the wall in the bathroom.

" _I may have deprived the hotel of a singularly ugly lamp,_ " Ferrus says with great dignity. " _They should be grateful!_ "

"You aren't allowed to break shit," Adam wails, shutting off the shower and grabbing a towel as he hops across the floor. "My mom paid for this room with a credit card. She's going to kill me when the hotel bill hits!" 

" _Your mother is a lady of great integrity and impeccable taste,_ " Ferrus sniffs. The lamp is very broken and he's poking at it with his tail. " _She will understand that it is an acceptable loss to the world of interior design._ "

"Can't we just fix it?" Adam pleads. The lamp looks like something the 70s rejected for being too hideous but Adam still wants it fixed. Even if Ferrus is too big to be afraid of his mom, Adam doesn't think his mom is going to be happy paying a hundred bucks or whatever the lamp costs because Adam's dragon thought it was ugly.

" _We_ can," Ferrus sniffs. " _But it was an abomination that richly deserved destruction._ ”

"That doesn't mean you should destroy it!" Adam says and if he's being a little hysterical here, he doesn't think anyone can blame him. He's also aware, as Ferrus blinks at him, that the towel he grabbed is in fact a hand towel that doesn't even cover his crotch properly. "Also, tell me you aren't sitting on my suitcase."

" _Is your suitcase in this room?_ " Ferrus asks mildly. 

"Yes," Adam says. Where else does Ferrus think Adam would keep his suitcase?

" _Is your suitcase on the floor?_ " Ferrus asks.

"Yes!" Adam snaps. "Where else was I going to put it?"

" _I could not presume to guess,_ " Ferrus' lips draw back and okay, wow, that's a lot of teeth. Adam isn't scared; there's a bone-deep knowledge that Ferrus would never hurt him. Still, that really is an awful lot of teeth. " _But if it is in the room and on the floor, I regret to inform you that I am most certainly sitting on it._ "

Ferrus has a point; he's pretty much filling every inch of the hotel room with less than two square feet of extra space for Adam to move around in.

"Wonderful," Adam sighs. He pokes at the lamp and thinks _really hard_ about how much he doesn't want to die because of his mom's credit card bill. The fragments of the lamp shift and start slithering across the floor, drawing together and it's like watching it shatter, only in reverse. Adam puts it back on the bedside locker and turns to the problem of his suitcase.

"Wait," he stops to look up at Ferrus and the way he's filling _all_ the available space. "If we're going to go see this mysterious guy-"

" _We are._ "

"-okay, fine," Adam plants his hands on his hips, ignoring the way his towel really doesn't cover anything to glare up at him. "How are we getting you out of the room?"

Ferrus shifts around to look at the window, then back at the door. " _Ah...I would suggest with great care?_ "

  


Two hours later, Adam is standing in the driveway of his house and looking around nervously for any passing pedestrians as Ferrus spits out his mom's car.

" _I am_ not _'spitting it out'_ ," Ferrus says frostily. " _I am returning it from the extra-dimensional space that I stored it in._ "

"You ate it," Adam says and the only reason he isn't full-blown hysterical right now is that he's had so much crazy stuff happen in the last six hours that he thinks he's beyond hysterics. "You just swallowed it in one big gulp."

" _Forgive me for not having opposable thumbs,_ " Ferrus makes a sound like a giant cat spitting out a hairball and Adam hears the creak of the car bouncing on its suspension. He turns around to see the car sitting in the driveway and Ferrus filling the shadows. 

"I could have just driven back," Adam points out.

" _You are a dragonrider,_ " Ferrus' tone actually manages to get colder. " _You do not use those tin cans to travel._ "

"Okay, okay," Adam pats him and Ferrus shrinks the size of a cat, curling into the crook of Adam's arm and wrapping his tail around Adam's wrist. Adam scratches Ferrus' belly and the death-grip on his wrist loosens. "Why are we back at my house, by the way? I thought we needed to talk to some guy and the only guy in this house that isn't me is Neil. If he knew anything, I'd already know everything."

" _Your brother is better at keeping secrets than you believe,_ " Ferrus rumbles under Adam's fingers. " _But no, it is not your brother that we need to speak to._ "

"So who do we need to speak to?" Adam asks quietly as he opens the front door.

Ferrus directs him out into the back garden and Adam closes the door quietly behind them. He's hyper-aware of all the noises around them and the fact that Neil's bedroom window overlooks the back garden. Ferrus flows out of his arms and swells back up to his preferred size. He sniffs at Adam's mom's rosebushes.

"Wait-!" Adam starts but Ferrus is already breathing in. 

Adam clamps both hands over his mouth as Ferrus blows at the bushes like it's a dandelion. At least, Adam thinks desperately, Ferrus isn't breathing fire? He still blows every single rose petal into the air, along with the whole indignant swarm of fairies. It looks like Ferrus has been breathing glitter and rose petals and oh yeah, Adam is so very, very dead. If the fairies don't get him, his mom will.

" _There he is,_ " Ferrus says triumphantly, pointing to a stubborn gold glow. " _Quickly, catch him!_ "

Adam is beyond confused but he's already let Ferrus eat and spit up his mom's car and destroy her roses. He's doomed already so he reaches out towards the golden fairy.

"Don't you dare!" the shrill voice makes him jump backwards and the fairy zips closer. "Even try to touch me and I'm going to bite your fingers off, you-you _heathen_!"

Adam's eyes cross in a vain attempt to look at the fairy who has nearly put his finger up Adam's nose. He's small, pale with sharp features and a light voice with a Southern accent. His wings are beating so fast that they're just a golden blur behind him and he's wearing tailored leaves. He's not really what Adam expected of a fairy. And he's still talking. 

"Some of us have had a very long, very hard day, okay? Some of us had plans for our nights that did not involve rebudding sixty roses! Some of us-" Ferrus makes a polite half-growl sound and the fairy shuts up. For all of two seconds. "Draco? Holy cow, is that you?"

Ferrus rumbles. He sounds pleased or possibly just amused.

"Shhhh!" Adam waves his hands desperately. "Stop being so loud!"

The fairy zips up, right in front of his face and Adam blinks. He's never seen a live fairy this close and he's surprised by how human - tiny, tiny human, but definitely human - the fairy looks. He opens his mouth, then blinks and blinks again. "Adam?! ADAM!?!?"

"Yes?" Adam says tentatively.

"And you live in this house?" The fairy gestures wildly at Adam's house, glowing brighter by the second. "You're the kid that's been living in this house for the last god-knows how many years." 

"Yeah?" Adam's not sure why he's being glared at here. He's been nice to the fairies! He gives them cookies, for god's sake!

The fairy punches him right in the nose. It's like being hit by a pen and Adam flinches again. Ferrus rumbles a little louder and a lot less friendly, and the fairy holds his hands up, backing up enough that Adam doesn't have to squint to focus on him.

"I'm not sorry," the fairy tells Ferrus. "But I won't do it again unless he does something else to deserve it!"

"What did I do to deserve getting punched this time?" Adam demands indignantly.

"You've been living right here! Under my nose for years and years and years and I didn't _know_!" The fairy is zipping back and forth, glowing brighter and brighter as his voice rises. Adam shoots a look at the windows of his house and tries to hush him. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

Ferrus is doing that silent laughing thing again and Adam thumps a scaly shoulder. Ferrus curls his tail around Adam's waist and Adam feels a little better. Ferrus may laugh at him but Ferrus is totally on his side. There's nothing like having a dragon ready and eager to back him up to boost his confidence.

"This might seem like a stupid thing to ask," Adam pats Ferrus' tail again. "But do I know you?" 

The fairy stops, hovering half an inch from Adam's nose and folds his arms. He scowls at Adam then humphs.

"That's a tricky question," the fairy sniffs, "but if you insist, the answer is yes and no."

"How does that work?" 

"You want answers?" The fairy tips his chin up. It would probably be intimidating if he wasn't like two inches tall. "Then get me an espresso, bitch. I'm not pulling an all-nighter without sufficient caffeination."

"But-" Adam starts and Ferrus' tail tightens, just a little, around his waist.

" _He has the answers, I would advise that you not give him any further reason to resent you. Bradley is a good friend to have._ " 

"Alright, fine. Coffee and then you are explaining _everything_." Adam pokes at the fairy - Bradley? - who promptly bites him. Adam curses and yelps and tries to shake the little bastard off as quietly as possible. This is such a bad, bad idea.

  


It takes two espresso shots before the fairy will agree not to bite Adam again, and three before he introduces himself. The house is eerily quiet in the dark. In the kitchen, the only sound is the faint hum from the fridge and the gurgle of the espresso machine. Adam can't even hear cars passing outside. He can also feel the wards shifting and settling against his skin. Adam's sitting at the kitchen table, wearing Ferrus like a scaly and very hot scarf.

"My name is Bradley," he sips at the tiny espresso cup which is bigger than he is, and Adam is trying not wonder where all the coffee is going. "I suppose you can call Brad."

"Okay," Adam holds out his hand. "I'm Adam."

"Yes," Brad draws the word out. "I know that."

"Well, yeah," Adam says. Brad is flitting around the coffee cup like a moth around a light bulb, glowing brightly. It's practically hypnotic and he keeps having to blink to refocus. "You've been living in my mom's rosebushes for however long you've been living here. I feed you guys."

"Yes," Brad turns his nose up. "Cookies. Have you ever considered that some of us would rather not spend our whole lives carb-loading?" 

"No-one made you eat them!" Adam protests. "And they couldn't have been that bad. They all got eaten in the end."

"My swarm-mother didn't raise no fools," Brad drawls, showing his teeth in a sharp smile. "But that's beside the point. If I'd known it was _you_ , I'd have filled your bed with thistles and spiders!" 

Adam leans back. Brad actually is two ('and a half, thank you very much') inches tall. Adam could theoretically squash him flat with one hand. Theoretically. Brad is kinda scary.

"Okay," Adam says because Brad is still smiling at him and Adam's starting to get nervous. "So, you and F-" he catches himself before he lets Ferrus' name slip. "You both are being really cryptic and I think it's time you started _explaining_ shit!" 

Brad opens his mouth, smirking and Ferrus growls. Brad rolls his eyes and lands to perch on the lip of the coffee cup and flicks his wings out. Adam fidgets as Brad stares up at him thoughtfully.

"Okay," Brad says eventually. "You have to understand, okay? I was Kris' friend first. I suppose you and I could be considered friends but I knew him first. You were just the clumsy jerk that he liked."

Adam blinks. "You're one of Kris' friends? Kris Allen? That Kris?" 

"Yes," Brad waves his hands. "I just said that! But you have to understand that to understand why I can't tell you everything. The closest I came to figuring out what was going on in that pretty little head of yours was when you had too many mojitos and I didn't have anything better to do than listen to you ramble."

"What are you talking about?" Adam rubs at his eyes. He's choosing to take 'pretty little head' as a compliment but the rest of it doesn't make sense.

"I'm talking about you - the you that I know," Brad folds his arms and looks away. "The you that started all this."

"....does coffee get you guys drunk or something?" Adam says, frustrated. "You aren't making sense."

Brad sighs and looks over at where Ferrus is watching Adam with his head cocked. He's humming deep in his throat; Adam can feel the barest hint of vibration against his shoulder. Brad sighs.

"I knew you when you were Adam Lambert, the great Dragonrider King of the Twilight Court," Brad says in a rush and Adam's heart stops.

  


Once upon a time, Brad says, there was a boy who woke up on the morning of his tenth birthday to find the fairies had left him a present. He didn't get distracted by the LEGOs or the enchanted copper dragon that has been sent all the way from Indiana. He went downstairs to where his grandpa was making pancakes because his grandpa knew all there was to know about fairies.

The boy's name is Adam Lambert. He's got a mom and dad who love him, a brother that's annoying and a grandpa he adores. He's living a remarkably unremarkable life in the Summerlands. He's gay, though he doesn't know that there's even a word for that yet. He's told about dragons and magic and his grandpa starts to teach him the little magic tricks that he's going to need. 

Brad doesn't talk about this part for long because Adam knows this story better that he does.

"I never met your grandpa," Brad says. "I saw him a few times but after he wrote a whole paper on 'lesser Fae', you told Kris it probably wasn't safe."

"He'd try to squish you?" Adam asks quietly. 

"Oh honey," Brad smiles again. "It was never _my_ safety that you worried about."

Looking at the sharp angles of Brad's smile, Adam doesn't doubt it. He looks down at his hands and Ferrus cuddles up against his neck, fanning out a feathered wing to ruffle his hair. 

"Then," Brad takes a deep breath. "There was - is? - Kristopher. He got his egg like three/four years later-"

"And Pastor Bobby cracked it," Adam says. "Yes, I know this part."

"Apparently you don't," Brad says pointedly.

Kris grows up in Conway, playing with wooden blocks in a kitchen filled with his mom's laughter and the smell of her famous raspberry pie. He's an adorable kid, affectionate and fearless, and his mom teaches him to sing, to love with all his heart and to never ever be afraid to do what he knows is right. When he's eight and a bit, his dad brings him on a trip to Texas and Kris nearly gets arrested for shouting and trying to fight a gardener who's exterminating a fairy bush in the hotel's garden.

"Most of us didn't make it," Brad says. "Most of those that did...? Well, those that did, ran."

Brad was too small and too young. Most of his swarm didn't even know he'd survived. Brad tells Adam candidly about how it feels to be an inch tall in a world of cockroaches and ants and rattlers. If Kris hadn't bundled him up in his dad's handkerchief and brought him up to the hotel room, Brad would be dead. 

Brad glosses over how badly he was hurt but his wings quiver, and Adam swallows as Brad leaps ahead with an airy "It wasn't like I was just going to let him go back to be plaid-ified."

Adam smiles a little at that. He hadn't liked Kris' plaid either.

"Well, once I'd moved to Hickville, Arkansas," Brad shrugs. "We bonded. Then, his egg showed up and his mom and dad-"

"-Freaked?" 

"Yeah, but they were afraid of what was going to happen to him," Brad stresses. "They were never afraid of him. You don't get it. You're a Summer kid." 

Brad practically spits as he says it. Gold light starts gathering around the tips of his wings and Adam feels Ferrus tensing on his shoulder. Adam's never heard the term before but he's going to go out on a limb and guess it's a bad thing.

"You only hear about the riders as these great noble knights," Brad flicks his wings and a tiny gold crackle of golden lightning grounds itself on the handle of the cup. Adam jumps a little and the wards hum warningly. "The Great Defenders of the Summerlands. You don't hear about the raids, the tributes and the hunts."

"What?" Adam asks.

"Do you really think every kid who ever gets an egg just _magically_ turns up in the Summerlands?" Brad's wings flick again and there's a spark in the air. "You never thought it was a little strange that some of them didn't wind up in the East Coast Protectorates?"

"No..."

Brad rolls his eyes. Then, in clipped and cutting sentences, he starts to talk about the Dragon Palace and the Duke. Adam starts to feel sick and he actually does have to bolt for the sink, retching painfully as his empty stomach as Brad explains about the 'Breeding Strategy'. His head is spinning and all he can think of is Archibald talking and how the riders' dragons had looked at Dracae.

"Pastor Bobby," Brad hesitates. "Honestly, he was a dickhead but he wasn't the main pastor. That was Pastor Barbra and she was a bad-ass. I liked her."

"What happened when Dracae hatched?" Adam asks. He can feel an ache gathering behind his eyes and it feels like his brain's over-inflating against the inside of his skull.

"Your mom happened," Brad pauses. "And that sounds like the punch line of a 'Your mom' joke. Ugh."

Dracae hatches when Kris is eleven. She's way premature but Brad shrugs it off. "Dracae gets what Dracae wants and she didn't want to spend another five years in that egg."

Kris' mom brings him to the Summerlands. Brad comes because "honestly, it's not like he could manage without me." Kim, that's Kris' mom, hopes that if she brings Kris to the Summerlands voluntarily then she can stay with him. It's a faint hope but Kim, Adam learns, is a remarkable stubborn woman and she is determined that the Dragon Palace isn't going to twist her boy into a monster.

"Her car broke down outside the Wal*Mart," Brad says and Adam can barely look at him. The charm weighs so much that it bows Adam's neck and Brad is sparkling and flickering. Adam's head is starting to throb. "Your mom was the only one who stopped. She offered them a place to stay and as soon as Kris and Dracae crossed the threshold-"

"My egg hatched," Adam says. It isn't quite a question. His head is pounding now and his memory of the hotel room and his egg hatching is distorted and unstable. The harder he tries to remember, the more unreal it feels. "Right there in the bathroom. I was in the shower, singing-singing...."

" _Bad to the Bone_ ," Ferrus' wings - he's currently got seven of them - ruffle up in pleasure. 

"Yeah," Brad said. "Music was always one of those things you guys bonded over. You got out of the bathroom after you painted the big D's talons and that was where it all started, I suppose. You two started talking and that was it."

Adam presses his hands against his temples. He...he remembers. Kris had been a tiny, spiky-haired kid with a big smile and they'd listened to music and chased Brad around the garden while their mums watched through the window and smiled. 

Kris had been the first person who'd ever looked at Adam like he was beautiful-

"-and that was when I was fat and ginger and god, the spots," Adam can hear himself babbling, the memories solidifying as he talks. "He used to tell me that I should be a rockstar."

" _You sang together a great deal,_ " Ferrus confirms. " _It was the most pleasurable part of our training by a most considerable margin._ "

"We went to the Dragon Palace?" Adam's head hurts but he can feel his mind readjusting as the new/old memories sort themselves out.

"Yeah," Brad says reluctantly. "For about six years, altogether. You didn't enjoy it but you both pretty much stuck together and you made it through."

Adam remembers... _late nights, giggling and casting cantrips. ...He'd spent a week with bright pink hair because he hadn't been able to get to the Library to research the counter-spell. ...Kris had spent two months blowing bubbles every time he laughed. He hadn't bothered to research the counter spell because he'd liked bubbles. ...Flying out into the bay, sky blue overhead and the blue sea stretching out below them._

Adam can feel his stomach clenching: his palms are sweating: his shoulders push up towards his ears and his throat is dry and tight. "What-what happened after training?" 

Ferrus snarls, savage and furious. He grows, neck thickening and shoulders bulging as spikes sprout. Brad is crackling with rage.

"One of the riders wanted to breed Dracae," Brad hisses. 

Adam's hands clench to fists.

"We fought," Brad says. "I went for help-"

"It didn't come?" Adam guesses bitterly.

"Oh, no," Brad is glowing so brightly that Adam can't even look at him. "Help came. But they didn't come to help _us_."

Adam feels the surge of red-hot rage like a gut punch. 

" _They did not succeed,_ " Ferrus spits, lashing his tail. " _We escaped but three of those **beasts** died. We fled the Summerlands. You-I-we were angry. I-you-we swore vengeance._ "

"And we got it?" Adam asks.

"Revenge?" Brad laughs, smiling savagely. "Yeah, we got revenge."

Adam listens dully as Brad talks about the flight into the wild South. How they'd gathered a Court around them, the Fae who had been persecuted and hunted down by the Riders. Adam had been offered the throne but...

" _You and Kristopher had become romantically and sexually involved,_ " Ferrus says diplomatically.

"You ruled together," Brad shook his head. "You wanted to be Queen because you could have a tiara."

Adam remembers...Kris had made him 'the fiercest tiara in the land' out of starlight and moonshine. He'd worn it for three days straight until Kris had kicked him out of bed for not washing his hair.

"But we weren't safe," Adam says, feeling tears sting. "So..."

"So you and Kris and all your devout followers went to war," Brad opens his arms, glow dimming. "That included me too, if you don't remember and we kicked their _asses_. They never even saw us coming. The Summerlands fell in less than a year."

"We won?" Adam can't reconcile the fierce triumph in Brad's tone with the dread still tying his guts in knots. 

" _In a manner of speaking,_ " Ferrus deflates, dwindling into a kitten-sized bundle of wings with big, mournful blue eyes in Adam's lap. " _But the Duke escaped._ "

"The Twilight Court ruled the Summerlands and your family was safe. No-one’s going to fuck with the Royal Family," Brad is staring at the table and he blinks fiercely. "But Kris' family....they-they were still in Arkansas. The Duke attacked Conway. Ten dragons against a town that didn't even have a Starbucks. You were at some official event, don't ask me which one and Kris didn't wait."

Brad swallows. Ferrus presses into Adam's hands.

"Ten to one," Brad coughs. "Should have been a no-brainer. But he did it."

"I got there too late," Adam whispers. There are tears streaking his cheeks and he can't see anything in focus. "There was so much fire. I couldn't-there was too much smoke. No fire, not in the town but there was so much smoke."

He remembers the burning scratch of his throat and how it had hurt to shout but he couldn't stop. The air had been thick with ash and hot as the desert. They - he and Ferrus - had searched every inch of the land outside Conway, calling for Kris and Dracae and pleading with them to be safe. It had taken the whole night and the sun had been breaking through the clouds of smoke when they'd - _he'd_ found...

"His ring," Adam's hand curls around the memory of the still-hot metal, warped and twisted by the flames. "I found his wedding ring."

Ferrus curls against his heart and Adam feels the weight of loss that hollows him out. He remembers how it had felt, standing with ash swirling around his boots and Ferrus' devastation filling the empty space in his chest. He thinks that maybe he screamed. He definitely cried. He'd kept looking until the ash had settled and he couldn't stand.

He'd found nothing.

Brad is staring at the window. The sun is coming up and the sky is grey with a faint hint of blue creeping in. The whole kitchen is so quiet that Adam can hear Brad breathing. Brad rubs at his eyes.

"We found you like the day after the day after and you were..." he hesitates. "I mean, you loved each other. We knew that, don't get me wrong here, but we really didn't get how _much_ you loved each other."

" _I-you-we-they_ " Ferrus' emotions are too-complicated to put in words but, now that he remembers, Adam understands what he means. A dragon and rider are seen as two halves of a single whole but by the time they'd gone running out of LA, Adam and Kris and Dracae and Ferrus had been interdependent. Losing Dracae had devastated Ferrus as much as losing Kris had devastated Adam. They'd both needed support and neither of them had been strong enough to meet that need. There hadn't, Adam thinks as he traces the shape of the ring on his palm, been enough left of either of them to be enough.

"You went crazy," Brad says bluntly. "You screamed blue murder at his family. I thought you were going to kill them. You blamed them for his death."

"...because if it had been anyone else," Adam says slowly. "He would have waited."

Brad looks away. "Yeah. You weren't wrong or anything but..."

Adam strokes Ferrus' wings and stares past him. He remembers how hard it had been to tear himself away from the ashes. He remembers killing the last of the old riders. He'd killed Archibald, called fire from the sky in a whirling maelstrom until the older Rider wasn't even a pinch of ash on the wind. Ferrus had torn the last of the dragons apart with horns and talons and spikes.

They'd tried to keep going. Adam had made it all of two days before he just couldn't continue.

"The thing is," Brad's still talking. "No-one, not any of the Wizards, or any of the Fae, had any idea how much power you really had. Not until you cast the Spell."

Adam can hear the capitalization and he lifts his head to look at Brad. Ferrus has gone tense in his lap and Adam closes his eyes and tries to remember what had happened next. He had the whole of the Dragon Palace, the accumulated power of every Wizard in the Summerlands and every noble and servitor of the Court behind him, and more power than any single entity had ever commanded. Adam remembers how it had felt, the certainty that everything he looked at, everything he touched, could be shaped: could be remade. Adam's eyes fly open.

"Did you know that time-loops are impossible?" Brad looks at his nails. "I can't imagine why Loft thought that would stop you. You had this idea that you could do it better, if you had it all to do over again."

"I reset the clock," Adam remembers. "Grandpa helped me write the spell. God, no wonder he hated me!"

"You tried to change the past," Brad nods. "But it didn't work. Not all the way. Something went wrong. You didn't change the past. This world of yours isn't real. All the people are here; we're real. The world we live in seems to just be made up of your memories and your wants, all jumbled up. That's why I know what happened; you just created this mass delusion and some of us didn't succumb."

"Why did the spell fail?" Adam demands. " _What_ went wrong?"

"Hells if I know," Brad throws his arms out.

"I do," Neil's voice comes from somewhere behind him and all three of them jump. Adam swings around and his jaw drops. It is Neil but not the plump, hormonal teenager who had pouted when their mom handed Adam the keys. He's tall, lanky and his jaw is dark with stubble.

Ferrus rises up, limiting himself to the size of a horse and he whuffs a surprisingly delicate smoke ring at Neil.

"Hey, D," Neil pats his muzzle and looks at Adam. He blinks twice and smiles suddenly. "Nice to see your little trip made a man out of you."

Adam looks down and blinks. His nails are carefully painted a dark rich blue and he's thinner and the bangs that hang in his eyes as he looks up are inky black. It only feels strange for a second before Adam remembers that this is who he made himself. This is who he really is. He stands up and Ferrus leans his chin over Adam's shoulder and Adam automatically reaches up to scratch the good spot at the back of his ear.

"Explain," Adam demands.

"I looked at Grandpa's notes," Neil smirks. "You aren't nearly as subtle as you think you are and he wrote pages and pages of notes about everything. The spell was perfect, there was nothing wrong with the spell. There was just a problem with pre-conditions."

"The problem, Neil? Why did the spell fail?" Adam repeats. 

Neil holds up a book and Adam stares at it. It takes a second before he recognizes it the leather-bound notebook Kris had sent him for his birthday. The one that had been enchanted or whatever and that Adam has had on his bookshelf forever. Neil tosses it to him and Adam flips it open. The pages were blank, the last time Adam looked at it but they're covered in familiar handwriting. Kris. Letters from Kris and Adam flicks through the pages, Ferrus crowding up against his back and breathing sulfur in his excitement.

"I don't get it," Brad announces after peering over Adam's shoulder.

"Grandpa's notes said that the only way this would work was if you set a condition - the situation that you wanted to change - very clearly when you started. It had to be 'honest'."

Ferrus bares his teeth, snarling and Adam slams the book down on the kitchen table. "I wanted Kris and Dracae back more than _anything_! Don't you fucking dare say I wasn't honest about this!"

"That's not what I meant," Neil backs up, raising his hands defensively. "You really wanted that, I know! All right? I know! But 'honest' means that the condition had to be achievable too."

"The Duke was alive," Adam spits. "Is alive still, maybe. At least until I find him again! Archibald was alive. Kris should have been brought back too!"

"Not," Neil says hesitantly. "If he wasn't dead to start with?"

Adam freezes. He blinks twice and suddenly, he's remembering the other Neil. The guy in the bar with the familiar smile. Kristopher _Neil_ Allen. Kris is shit at subterfuge. Adam asking for his name would have panicked him. Kris. Kris really alive. Adam doesn't trust it but the more he remembers, the more it fits.

"Oh," Adam would go down, right on his ass if Ferrus wasn't supporting him. "That sneaky little son of a _bitch_!"

"And according to those," Neil points at the book. "He's been captured. By the _Twilight Court_. This whole spell has been about rescuing him. That why the war - the Court's been trying to get him back so you'll break the spell and we can all go back to living happily ever after."

Neil is holding up another familiar shape. It's the goddamn spell book. The one Kris sent him. Adam reaches for it and feels the familiar hum of Kris' magic. Kris sent this to him and Adam hugs it close.

"What if it's a trap?" Brad asks, floating over Adam's unoccupied shoulder. "What if the Duke wants you to break the spell and nothing changes?"

"I don't know," Neil says and they're all looking at Adam now.

"One way to find out," Adam says. He closes his eyes and remembers 'Neil': remembers _Kris_ : remembers the desperation and the love in his eyes. He breathes, opening his eyes and flips the spell book open. 

Enunciating as clearly as he can, Adam starts to read...


End file.
